Rose Petals Frozen in Time
by RWBYWriter0711
Summary: 10 years after Team RWBY graduated Beacon, arguably the world's brightest light, Ruby Rose, flickered… and died; casting a dark shadow on Remnant. But most importantly, Weiss. Now given the option to go back, save the Ruby she loved but never told, will she alter fate, or is destiny set in stone? Rated T for now, but might go up to M later on.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: So for those of you that looked at my profile recently, you will have seen that I have been working on something special for a long time. Ever since my birthday a little over a month and a half ago, I started writing out chapters for this new story. I hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it. And since I've been working on it for so long, I will have a good number of chapters backlogged for y'all. They will be posted weekly, every Thursday night (for me, it's a Thursday night right now). Shout out to my boy Gorsouul and a friend from college for beta reading this for me, and helping me get better. Enjoy!**

The "future" is now, and yet… I yearn for the past...

The day is quiet. Much quieter than it should be. And I'm sitting here at my desk. This empty, worthless desk. A beautiful desk in the right eyes, I'm sure. With all of its fine carpentry, the expensive wood, the quality paint... But beauty is gone from me. All of my joy left a long time ago. I slam my fist into the table, suddenly overcome with rage

 _Damnit, Ruby… Why did you have to… Why did you have to go?_

 __In the next moment _, the anger gives way to a piercing sadness that nearly makes my heart stop._

Before me sits a book full of pictures. Of memories. Turning the pages brings me face to face with the memories that have filled my life up to this point.

A picture of Team RWBY on the first day of Beacon after getting assigned teams.

Pictures of parties at Beacon with the team. Ruby and I sitting off in the edge of the picture whereas Yang is drunkenly hugging Blake. Blake blushing and pushing her away, even though she later admitted she liked it.

Pictures of Ruby and I as bridesmaids at Yang and Blake's wedding. She looked so beautiful that day.

A tear falls from my eye, dropping against the desk, and more soon fall, following the first to their own demise. I wipe the tears from my eyes, get up, and head towards the mirror in my office to get a good look at myself. The dark circles under my eyes confirm that I look as bad as I feel. I haven't slept well in weeks, I've stopped caring about skin care, and somehow, my scar looks worse than normal. No, I haven't been able to say that I'm doing okay; not since that day. That absolutely horrible day; the day when I lost both my best friend and the love of my life. Tears well up again, but before they can fall, a loud, obnoxious ringing breaks my thoughts. I turn to see my office phone with a call on the line for me. Walking over, I hesitate to pick it up, my hand faltering as I touch it. My will to be alone fails me, as I answer anyway.

A cheery voice greets me from the other end of the line. " _Miss Schnee? Yes hi, it's Linda, your secretary. Anyway, I'm calling to remind you of your meeting with the head of research and development in the SDC later today."_

"Thank you, Linda, but I'm not in the mood for meetings today," I say, almost emotionlessly. Truth be told, I hadn't been able to muster any energy at all today to get work done. What was even the point? Life felt so meaningless.

" _I hope you don't get mad at me for saying this, ma'am, but you haven't been in the mood for meetings at all in these past few weeks. Not since Miss Rose-"_ My breath catches at her name. " _Oh, I'm sorry, Miss Schnee, I shouldn't have said that."_

"No, it's okay Linda. It's fine. Just…" I hesitate, holding myself from going off on her. "Do you have anything else? Or can I get back to what I was doing?" _I wasn't doing anything, but I just want to end this phone call._

" _Oh! Yes, about the meeting today, I was told to tell you that this is really something you're going to want to see. And that she's tired of you moving the meeting date over and over again. But most importantly that this is something you want to see."_

"Alright, I'll try and humor her. What time is the meeting?" I ask, feigning enthusiasm.

" _Well, it's at 2 PM. So should I tell her that you'll be in attendance?"_ There was a faint hope in her voice that this time, her pleas wouldn't be in vain

I look at the watch adorning my wrist to look at the current time. _10:30. Damn, it'll still be a while._ "Yes, go ahead and let her know that I'll be there. Now is that all?" I ask, growing impatient and wanting to be alone again.

" _Yes, that'll be all for now, Miss Schnee. I hope your day gets better!"_

"Thank you, Linda. Goodbye." I say in a voice that's probably too harsh and hang up the phone and sit down at my desk, my head resting itself in between my hands. The cheerfulness was well-meant, but nonetheless annoying. I didn't like how it made me feel like the bad guy either.

Minutes pass before I move from that spot, but it feels like hours. Time has become irrelevant to me now. _I just want to see her again._ I think to myself as I finally start moving again. _I'd do anything to see her again._

I check my watch again, and much to my dismay, the blasted thing reads 11:15. Not nearly enough time had passed. Sighing, I grab some papers from the large stack of paperwork that had recently been accumulating at an alarming rate. _I might as well try to work on SOMETHING._

Five sets of paperwork later, my mind has gone blank. _I guess this is what happens when you do nothing for three weeks and then try to jump back into the swing of things._ However, upon looking down at my watch, I'm happy to see that the time now reads as 1:00. _Damn, that took a while, but I guess it helped things speed up. Anything to end the day faster._

 _Sighing to myself, there is a faint regret in not being able to delve into work with all abandon, just to be able to find relief for my tormented mind.._

My stomach rumbles, interrupting my musings before the sadness fully hits me again. I stand up, heading to the small mini refrigerator and getting my lunch out of it. One would think as the CEO of SDC, I'd have more than a large expensive desk, a chair, and a mini fridge in my office, but that's not the case. I wanted a simple room. My lunch is a simple salad, devoid of any taste, as most things are. Finishing that consumes a bit of time, as I pick through my food. _It's hard to have any sort of craving for food when the one person you cared about the most, more than yourself at some times, is gone. One day here, and the next gone without a trace. Without a word. Without a goodbye…_ The phone suddenly rings again _._. I snap out of my trance-like state and pick it up.

" _Miss Schnee? Your two-o'clock meeting is here."_ I glance at my watch to find that it is indeed two-o'clock.

"Oh, okay. Send her in." I sit back in the desk and wait for her to come in. The all-too familiar head of research and development walks in with a kind of swagger that most people these days don't seem to have. Her bright yellow hair and somewhat cocky attitude is the only things to recognize her by from the years in Beacon. Her look is a much more professional one, and less of a partying sorority girl.

Fond memories fill my mind for a second, the wistful reminiscence taking me back to better days when life felt bright and the days were filled with joy.

"Hello, Yang," I greet, motioning her to the chair in front of me.

She doesn't sit.

"Weiss, it's nice to see that you've finally agreed to meet with me." Her tone is somewhat annoyed, but it is laced with care.

A pang of guilt hits me."I-I'm sorry, Yang. I-It's just that…" I trail off, rubbing my arm awkwardly and looking anywhere but Yang's eyes.

She lets out a weary sigh, her expression growing somber."I know it's been hard since Ruby died. And I don't blame you for that. I know how you felt about her. I'm devastated too."

I feel tears welling up again at the mention of Ruby. Yang sees this and walks over to comfort me, and I immediately throw my arms around her as tears run down my face.

"It's just… Why did she… Why did she have to d-die so soon? I l-loved her! And I n-never got to tell her!" I sob. Yang just rubs my back soothingly. The hug is soothing, her warm embrace giving me a small sense of comfort.

"I know, Weiss. I know. We all feel it. Trust me, we all feel it. But, that's actually why I'm here. I have some news you might want to hear. You'll have to get up though. Think you can follow me back to the lab?" She asks. She looks very excited to show me whatever this is. It's weird seeing her this happy considering what had happened. I nod in response. I put my arm around her shoulders, and she helps me up. Now standing on my own two legs, I walk next to her out of the office and into the hallway where Linda is seated.

"Headed out, Miss Schnee?" Linda asks as we walk past her. She looks happy. Probably because I seldomly leave my room at this point. It's good to see that someone is happy.

"Yes I am, Linda. Hold all of my calls until I get back, okay?" I regret how I snapped at her earlier, so I said this with a bit more compassion in my voice than earlier. She simply nods in response.

I follow Yang out to her car - another thing that is different. She no longer uses Bumblebee as her only mode of transportation - and get in the passenger side. The drive is short, but nerve-wracking. _What news does she have? How can she be so okay with what happened? She looks so calm. Not like me. I'm a mess._

We get out, and Yang leads me through the facility. There are people behind some glass messing with chemicals in vials, doing tests with refined Dust, and the refining itself of Dust. She leads me past some of the people in suits, dealing with radioactivity in some testing rooms, and leads me back to the very back room. Sitting in the room is a large chamber with lots of wires, cables, and monitors hooked up to it. There are a number of scientists standing around it.

"Yang, what is this?" I ask, motioning to the large chamber.

"That," she starts, "is the news I have for you. You know as well as I do that there have been great advances in the scientific fields as of late. Well, what you don't know is that we've been working on this… little project here for about two years now, and as of last night, we finally had a successful test trial."

"Wait, if your first success was last night, then why have you been trying to schedule a meeting with me for weeks now?" I question. "Also, what is it?"

"I'll get to what it is in a second. As for why, I tried to schedule meetings because I knew what we were working on, and how it could help. Help all of us, but most of all, you," she explains in a slower, kinder tone. She grabs my shoulder and gently squeezes it

"How is this going to help me? The only thing that can help me is to see Ruby again..." I trail off, doing my best to hold back the tears. I have to stay as strong as I can in front of all my employees..

"Exactly!" She says, looking at me with a large smile.

"What do you mean exactly?"

"Weiss, this… What we made? It's a Time Machine. We got it to work last night." Her smile has grown to even larger proportions. She's bouncing on the balls of her feet.

 _A Time Machine? What does she think I am, twelve? I don't believe her. How can I? What she's saying is absolutely ridiculous!_

"You're messing with with me, right?" I deadpan.

"No, Weiss. I'm not. I'm being completely serious. We found the perfect code to make it happen. Adding the right amount of Dust into this chamber with the time traveller, and then sending two atoms into the chamber at the speed of light from these tubes here will allow the user to travel through time. The atoms colliding creates the immense amount of power that is needed to power the trip, and then that, combined with the Dust input fuels the time warp itself. We found the exact ratio to do it."

The more she explains it, the more I lower my guard. "So… we can go and save Ruby? Go back in time to a point in time before she died, and stop her from going on that mission?" I ask.

"Well, in a sense, yes. See, if you were to go back as you are now to the point before Ruby died to save her, you'd create a paradox, Saving her would have removed your desire to go back and save her, thus removing your ability to save her, and so on and so forth. So large jumps into the past like this uses a different form of travel through time, as you travel through space as well. In order to not create said paradox, there would have to be a split in space, which you'd be jettisoned through into an alternate reality." Yang explains, showing me diagrams and formulas throughout the explanation.

"And so… you want me to go back in time to stop Ruby from dying. And in order to do that, I have to be pushed into an alternate reality to not create a contradiction in logic and physics. That about right?" I ask, walking through it in my head.

"Exactly. But, it wouldn't be a time in close proximity to Ruby's death. With all that you know now, your behavior around her would be different, and she would definitely notice it. That'd put her off, and she wouldn't listen."

"This sounds like a load of crap, Yang. But at this point, I'd do anything to see Ruby again. And even if this fails and kills me… at least I won't be living without Ruby. So then… where, sorry, when will I be going?" I ask.

"Wow, Weiss. That thing you said right there? That was depressing. Anyway, we've decided the best course of action for you to take is for you to go back to the first day at Beacon, that way Ruby can meet you with this knowledge, and that will be the real you to her. And now with the added benefit, you can pursue her when you fell for her like you always wanted to. Or at least, that's what you always told me was when you fell for her." Yang smirks.

"Shut up, Yang. I told you that in confidence, not for you to blab in front of all of these strangers." I scold.

"Aw, come on. Don't put me on… Weiss just for that." An audible groan can be heard from the rest of the people in the room. Yang just chuckles. "You know you guys love me. Anyway, you'll be put in place of your younger self. And don't worry, Ruby will be just like how you met her. She'll only change what you make change. Just… try not to come across as obsessed. That's a huge turn off."

It hits me then that this… this might be really possible. It might really be possible to see Ruby again. To be with Ruby. To save Ruby.

Images flash through my head: memories of the young and hyper huntress.

Ruby and I on the first day, when I scolded her and she exploded.

Ruby and I when we were chosen to be partners.

Ruby's unwavering optimism.

Ruby's beautiful smile.

Ruby.

 _Ruby… I'm coming._

"Yang, send me back in time to save Ruby."


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: Hey everyone, and welcome back! It's Thursday! Which means it's time for this to update! For the most part, I got positive feedback, which I'm really happy you guys like it so far. To the few that have a few problems, I understand your concerns, but I have my reasons for how these two chapters are written. You'll see at the end of this chapter that this was all just exposition to get to the real meat of what y'all are here for. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy!**

"Yang, send me back in time to save Ruby."

"Great! That's the spirit! Now, a few things I didn't mention before. One, you cannot tell her about any of this. I feel like this is obvious, but I gotta say it anyway. She probably won't believe you if you tell her, and she'll probably think you're crazy. Got it?" Yang asks. I nod. _Obviously. I'm not stupid._

"Two! When you do this, you will inhabit the body of your younger self. You will go back to how you looked back then. And you'll get to experience some…" She trails off, coughing uncomfortably. "Some of the stronger… sexual urges of a teenager again. So… so don't do anything too bad with Ruby, okay?"

I laugh uncomfortably. "Don't worry, Yang. I won't do anything bad with Ruby," I say, with a slightly uncomfortable smile on my face. "Is there anything else that needs to be said?" I ask after a few seconds of hesitation.

"Yes, there is. Three! This will be your new life. We've constructed the ability to get you back there, but not to return you here. You will live out the rest of your life in that time, in that reality. And Four, your actions will have consequences. With this newfound knowledge, you will act differently, and things won't likely be the same. Just be aware of that. Or should I say a-WHEN of that? Eh? Eh? Get it? Because time travel?" Another groan from the others in the room. I chuckle and shake my head.

"I'm gonna miss you, Yang," I say. It's still so hard to believe that this is happening. My head spins, and I get lightheaded as this flood of information is presented to me at such a quick pace.

 _Why would Yang do this for me? This means a lot more to me than I'm showing. I wonder if she knows this? I hope she does. I'm not the best at expressing things._

"Hey, hey, hey, don't worry. You won't lose me, you'll just… change me… me's?" She looks around, confused and then gives out a frustrated sigh. "You'll have a different Yang to be with. There, that's what I was looking for." A thought occurs.

"Wait, Yang. You care about Ruby too, right? Why aren't you going back? With or without me? I feel like you should be going, not me." I question.

 _Yang is her sister. Her SISTER. Why does she not want to go back with me? Ruby's death affected her too, I know it. So… why? Why am I getting to go, and not her? This doesn't feel right._

"Because there's only room for one person to be able to go back." Her tone drops as she says this. It's almost a tone of defeat. Almost. This must be harder for her to do than she lets on. "And the reason it's you and not me is because you love her in a way that nobody else does. I've already found my someone. But you. You found your someone, and then you lost her. That's the hardest thing anyone goes through. We all feel like you should get another chance." She motions to the rest of the people in the room. Most of them smile and wave; however, a few of them look back at me awkwardly as if they had just been put on the spot, which they had.

"But… don't you want to go too?"

"I do want to go, Weiss, but you NEED to go. So let's get you ready to go, okay?" She smiles and looks away, obviously thinking that she could hide the tear that fell from her eyes. She couldn't hide it. Not from me. _She's in so much pain over not being able to go… I might as well give her this one and pretend I didn't see it._ And pretend I do, as she looks up and flashes me with that trademark smile of hers.

"O-okay," I reluctantly agree.

"Great! Now, follow me to where you'll be prepped for the journey." Yang says, motioning me forward to follow her. I do, and she takes me up to the time machine, showing me how the mechanisms work. It's extremely technical, and even after just being told about it, I've forgotten most of it. I don't know WHEN Yang got this technologically inclined, but it suits her I guess.

I give Yang a big hug. "Thank you, Yang. This means more to me than you know." There's not enough words to describe how I feel. Disbelief, wonder, confusion, hope, and mostly, unbridled joy.

She returns the hug in kind. "No problem, Weiss. Go make Ruby happy for the both of us." I try to hold back tears.

"Goodbye, Yang. Tell Blake goodbye for me too, okay?" I'm still trying to hold in tears, but it's not working as a few of them slip out. The hug lasts for probably a minute before we separate.

Eventually, they suit me up in some almost hazmat suit, except it's colored like aluminum foil: shiny silver. Apparently, it's for my "protection", but that kind of fell apart when a few of the workers got out their Scrolls to take pictures of me in it. But I sigh and put up with it. _After all, I won't be having to put up with it much longer._ Yang puts me in the chamber, and all noise immediately fades as the door is sealed after I step in. There is a window on the door that I can see out of. The team inside are running around frantically, adjusting knobs, turning wheels, and pressing buttons. Yang monitors them, and once they all give her some sort of positive signal, Yang faces me, smiles, and then presses a single button on the terminal next to the pod.

I start thinking about the others in this reality. Blake, Yang, Nora, Jaune, Ren, Sun, Neptune. All of them. _I'm going to miss them. Of course, I'll have them again. But not the same them. We won't have gone through the things we've gone through here. They won't know me. I'll know them, but they won't know me._

I close my eyes and shake my head. _It sounds bad, but them not knowing me is something that I'm willing to deal with if I can see her again_. "I'm coming for you, Ruby." I start to think about all of the things that I can do differently this time around. Things to make life better for not only myself, but for those around me.

 _Things like spending more time doing fun things with other people. While schoolwork is important, so are friendships. Things like laughing more. Things like standing up to Father before he decides that he needs to send me an ultimatum. And most importantly, things like being better to Ruby. She deserves the best._

Small compartments start opening up at the bottom of the pod, and Dust starts pouring in. A mixture of color swirls around my feet as Dust of all colors fills up the pod up to my knees. It's a strange feeling. A voice sounds from a speaker located in the pod.

"You ready, Weiss?" It's Yang. She's standing in front of the pod, looking through the window. I close my eyes, breathe in and out, and open them again. I flash a weak smile, and give a thumbs up.

 _There's no turning back now. Let's get this over with. Soon I'll see her again._ I smile, remembering Ruby. I feel nervous, but hopeful. There's so much possibility with what can happen. Despite the nerves pulsing through my body, I'm somehow calm. Nervous, but calm. I'm unsure as to why, but… I'm glad that I'm not a gibbering mess during the process.

"Atom accelerator powering on now," Yang's voice comes through again. I close my eyes again, waiting until it's done. Another minute or so passes before Yang's voice comes on again.

"Atomic collision in T-minus 5…"

 _This is it._

"4…"

 _I'm really doing it._

"3…"

 _I'm going back in time._

"2..."

 _To save Ruby._

"1…"

 _To love Ruby._

"Now."

Immediately after saying that, a bright light flashes above me as, I'm assuming, the atoms collide. A large explosion noise, almost deafening, follows shortly thereafter. The Dust around me starts rising and swirling around me, coating my suit more and more as it churns in the pod. Once every inch of my body is covered, another bright flash, and then darkness.

I can't really describe the feeling of being surrounded by emptiness. Boring, I guess. Lonely, yes. Cold? Kind of. The nothingness that swallowed me seems to last forever, and then almost as soon as it was here, it was gone, and I was sent soaring through wherever I was.

The Darkness gives way to a bright blue, and my body is thrown downward, feeling some sense of gravity for the first time in what felt like minutes? Hours? Who knows. Then again, I am using a time machine. It would make sense for time itself to be a bit… off.

I keep rushing downwards, my heart fluttering anxiously as a scene opens up in front of me: My servants, my luggage, and I getting off of an airship. The ground approaching my field of vision at an alarmingly fast rate. My heart skips a beat, awaiting an impact, but right as I'm about to hit the ground, I fade. My form fades and seeks out the body of my younger self. Upon getting to it, it seems to mesh, effortlessly fusing with. I gasp as I open my eyes and don't see the neverending expanse of nothingness, but the front steps of Beacon for technically the first time.

"Miss Schnee? Is something wrong?" One of the servants asks me. I smile politely and shake my head.

"No, everything is fine, thank you." I respond, thrown off a bit about how different my voice sounds. The servant, whose name escapes me, simply nods and continues walking with my luggage. My knees feel weak and my head spins. I start to feel nauseous, and sweat begins to form on my brow. But even in spite of all of this, I still smile to myself.

 _You did it, Yang. You gave me the best thing anyone could have given me: A second chance. Your friendship has meant so much to me over the years, and I can't wait to become friends with you all over again. I'll miss you, Yang, but I still won't be without you. It's strange. But either way, thank you…_

A large crash soon sounds from behind me, interrupting my musings. Slightly peeved that something would interrupt my happy moment, I turn around and yell. "What are you doing?"

Then my eyes see the real reason for the crash, and the memory comes back to me: this exact same thing happened on my first day of being at Beacon. And the same person at the cause. The same brunette with red dyed tips. The same awkward and hyper huntress in training that I came to fall for.

 _Ruby..._


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: Well, here it is! Chapter 3. Posting it in before this category 4 almost 5 hurricane comes over and wrecks the East Coast (which, I'm about 3 hours from the coast, so... yay...). Anyway, I'm super excited to post this one. I'm glad that you all have enjoyed it so far as far as I've seen. This has been the best opening 2 weeks (in terms of follows, favorites, and reviews) I've had really ever upon posting a new story, so I'm really excited. I'm hope you all are excited too, because here, my friends, is where the real story begins.**

"What are you doing?" _Ruby…_

"I'm sorry!" the young huntress-in-training yelps out. It takes me a few seconds to orient myself with the current situation. _This… This is what happened years ago._ My head starts the hurt when I think about it, so I just don't. Then I remember the entire reason for coming back: Ruby. My eyes look her over, and I can't help but smile. She's just how I remember her. She's just as beautiful as I remember her as well; her short, red-tipped hair falling right in front of those beautiful silver orbs that are her eyes. Those same silver eyes looking up at me with confusion and concern. I stare at her, entranced for a few seconds before I shake myself out of the almost trance-like state I seemed to have fallen into. _Hopefully she didn't notice._ I shake my head before looking at her again. _This is real. I'm really here. This isn't a dream._

Recalling how this went the first time, I make a promise to myself not to treat Ruby as poorly as I did before. _After all, I've been given another chance at love. I can't mess it up again. Not after what Yang did for me. She still should have come. Regardless, I'm still grateful. This is the best gift anyone could have ever given me._

"It's okay, d-don't worry about it. A-accidents happen." I manage to get out from the nervousness that suddenly falls upon me, a light burning of my cheeks making it clear that I'm blushing. _I guess I'm a lot more nervous than I thought._ I offer my hand to help her up. She takes it.

As she grabs my hand, we make eye contact. The sudden feeling of Ruby's touch along with those beautiful silver eyes piercing into my soul sends electricity through me. It's a struggle to maintain the eye contact, but I push through the nervous jubilancy and keep my eyes locked onto hers, but not in a creepy way.

"Are you okay?" Ruby asks me, her face painted with concern.

"Yes, I'm okay, R-" I stop myself before I say her name, cursing to myself silently. _You're not supposed to know her name yet, you dolt._ "Yes, I'm okay," I repeat, a slight smile on my face. Not large enough for Ruby to notice, but enough for me to. _This is really happening._

"Well okay then! My name is Ruby. It's nice to meet you…?" She trails off, trying to get me to finish the sentence for her. She's already back to her cheery self that won me over the first time. Her smile radiating this sheer happiness to everyone lucky enough to be in her immediate vicinity.

"Weiss. My name is Weiss Schnee." I say, smiling. _My heart is beating so fast. I think I'm going to explode._

Another voice enters the conversation. "Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, one of the largest producers of energy propellant in the world." A dark haired girl with a bow on walks up to us. It's hard to forget who she is. _Blake._

"Yes, that's me." I say nervously, vaguely remembering how this conversation went before. _Maybe this time, I can make our start better too. I don't want to show hatred towards her, she doesn't deserve it. I can fix this wrong too._

"This same company infamous for its controversial labor forces and questionable business partners."

I smile and laugh awkwardly, realizing she's right. Then I remember all of the changes that I made to the company as soon as I took over back in my time, and my awkward smile changes to an actual one."Well, to be fair, the company isn't being run by me yet. I think that when it is run by me, there will be some much needed changes." I say. Blake nods and hands me a vial of dust. One of the suitcases must have come unlocked when Ruby fell on them.

After handing me the vial, Blake turns around. "See you around," she says before walking away, leaving me with Ruby again. I take the opportunity to look at her again. _It's been so long since I've seen her. Three weeks. It feels like forever ago. She's so beautiful, even though she doesn't try to be. I missed you so much, Ruby._

"Weiss?" Ruby's voice interrupts my thoughts.

"Yes, Ruby?"

"Do you know where we go from here? I'm… I'm kinda lost, and my sister ditched me earlier." Ruby blushes at the admission of being lost. She scrapes her boot on the ground, further showing that embarrassment that she must feel because of it.

"I… think I know where to go," I say, smiling. "Here, follow me." I turn around and start walking towards the main foyer of Beacon, where Ozpin is about to give his speech. We have to push our way through the crowd that's forming out in front of the school. As we push forward, we pass a few familiar faces. Cardin, Pyrrha, Ren and Nora, even Jaune are waiting to get in around us. I look around and see the pillars that adorn the front of Beacon. Architecture I haven't seen in years. Everything is swirling around in my head. The realization that I can keep Ruby safe, the realization that it's really happening, and the realization that this is my new life among a few of the things that are populating my thoughts.

Upon entering, Yang sees Ruby and waves her over to her. "Ruby! I saved you a spot!" She yells over the crowd. Ruby smiles and starts walking over to her sister. Not knowing what to do, I stay there, standing where Ruby left me. Much to my chagrin, Ruby doesn't wave me over to be by her. My head sinks a little bit. _Calm down, Weiss. She's only just met you. She's not going to call you over there. It's going to be okay. You're not going to make her fall for you in a day. You didn't fall for her in a day, remember that. She probably just got excited about Yang and forgot I was here. Yang. I'll make things different with her too. She cares about Ruby a lot. And Ruby is going to go through some rough times. I'll be there for Ruby of course, but also for Yang, since that's going to hit her pretty hard as well._

I walk over to them, careful not to interrupt any conversation they're having. _It's not bad to be more approachable, right? Right. This is fine, as long as I don't interrupt them_

"And then there was this really nice girl named Weiss that, even though I tripped and fell on her stuff, she helped me up!" I hear Ruby say while I'm walking closer. Then she leans in close to Yang and whispers. Luckily, she's not very good at whispering, and I'm also fairly close to them by now. I don't hear everything, but what I can make out is: " _Plus, …. pretty."_

I blush, and my heart skips a beat. _Could she be talking about me?_

"Awww does my little sis have a little crush?" Yang teases, somewhat loudly. Ruby blushes a slight shade of crimson and whispers back harshly.

 _I think she might be._

"Yang! W-what gave you that idea?" Ruby stutters, obviously flustered.

"Nothing," she says, looking away in another direction.

I laugh nervously as I approach the two of them. I'm a bit nervous to approach them after what I just heard, but it's what I have to do so I can get myself closer to them, specifically to Ruby.

"Weiss?!" Ruby asks, somewhat on edge with my sudden appearance.

"Hi again, Ruby. I assume that this is your sister?" I ask motioning to Yang. _Man, it's going to be so hard pretending to not know anything about them. Definitely not something I'm used to._

"Yeah, how did you know?" Ruby asks.

 _Gotta play it cool._ "You two just kind of give off the feeling that you're siblings." _Nailed it._

"Oh, well yeah, we're sisters. We-" Ruby starts, but is cut off by a loud voice.

" **Ahem** " Professor Ozpin starts, speaking into the microphone. The body of new students gets quiet as Ozpin speaks. _Just as eloquent as ever._ I think to myself. I roll my eyes, remembering what was said the first time I heard this. Disinterested with the whole scenario, I turn my attention to looking around again. I'm able to pick out a few people I remember in the crowd during the speech.

And then it ends, leaving the students to their devices for the night. Ruby and Yang both ask me to move my sleeping situation closer to them since we're friends now. The thought makes me smile. _Friends._ I fall asleep with that stupid smile on my face, and Ruby on my mind.

* * *

As I fall asleep, my eyes open again, except… I'm not awake. My mind starts to play a memory, one I've had ingrained into my mind since it forest in front of us calm. We had been assigned to take out a small group of Geists. Nothing too difficult. Ruby and I had been assigned this task. We were confident in our abilities, so we took it. We looked for about three hours before we found any of the Geists. They were in a large clearing out in the middle of the forest, and so the encounter started. Ruby and I made quick work of the first one that we fought, taking minimal aura damage. It was looking like another easy job. The other two Geists started acting more defensively than offensively. The first one was focused entirely on offense, which is why it fell so quickly.

"Ruby, they're acting smarter." I said, looking for an opening.

"I know, but I think I have a plan." I trusted her plan. We backed off and prepared. I would set up glyphs all around the two Grimm, and Ruby would use her semblance to quickly strike off all of the possessed limbs they had acquired before I came in and dealt the final blows.

"You ready, Ruby?"

"Of course, Weiss. Let's do this." And just like that, the plan started taking shape. Glyphs surrounded the Grimm, and Ruby went to it, slicing through the limbs like the Grim Reaper sliced through the bodies of those marked for death. She wasn't nicknamed the Red Reaper for nothing, after all. And then right as she was about to cut through the last of the arms, the Grimm hit her with it. The unforeseen variable was of course the Grimm, but we both thought Ruby would be too fast for them to predict any of her movements. It turns out we were wrong. The blow knocked out a good chunk of Ruby's aura and sent her slamming into a tree. I immediately rushed over to protect her before the Grimm could follow up. Standing in between Ruby and the Grimm, I summon a glyph to keep it away from us.

It responded by slamming its remaining rock limb into the glyph over and over. The glyph was waning, and I was fully prepared to counterattack after it broke. But I didn't account for Ruby jumping in front of me as it did, taking another direct hit.

It was almost in slow motion how it happened. The attack reduced the rest of Ruby's aura to nothing, sending her flying directly into another tree. Except she didn't it the trunk. As she was sent flying, she impacted with a branch… and didn't stop. As she kept going, the branch pushed itself through her body, impaling Ruby there.

Color drained from Ruby's face, and blood gushed from the wound, the branch coated in red as it emerged from her abdomen.

"RUBY!" I yell, waking myself up from my sleep. It was morning. I sit up and feel a few tears fall down. Apparently I was crying in my sleep, and the tears were pooling on my face. _That was the worst it's been in two weeks…_ My heart is beating like a madman.

After wiping my eyes of the tears, I take a look around. A few people are glaring at me, which is understandable seeing as I just woke them up screaming. I turn my head again, and Ruby is looking at me, concern in her eyes.

"Weiss, are you okay? Did you have a nightmare?" Ruby asks. I swallow the lump in my throat and respond.

"Yeah, Ruby… it was… it was just a nightmare. I'm… I'm fine." I wipe away another tear from my eyes.

"Well, if you need to talk about it to feel better, you can talk to me." Ruby smiles. _If only I could, Ruby. If only I could._ I give a weak smile back.

"Thank you, Ruby." She smiles again and gets up, getting ready for the day.

* * *

We all get up together and eat a quick breakfast, Ruby eyeing me with concern after having screamed myself awake, and with her name no less. The meal passes in relative silence, everyone tense about the initiation that will be upon us soon. I myself am tense for a completely different reason. While everyone else is tense because they don't know what's about to happen, my anxiety comes to a head because I'm thinking about my partner. _I need to be partners with Ruby again. I don't know what would happen if I'm not. I can't imagine being on a team that Ruby isn't on. That's the main reason I'm here, to be with Ruby. If I'm not with her, I don't know what's going to happen to her or myself._

After breakfast, we all start heading over to the cliffs outside of Beacon for our initiation. As the sunlight hits us, Ruby stretches, energized by the warmth of the sun. _Ruby always was a morning person._

We line up on our little launch pads and get ready. Ozpin greets us, and as he's talking people to the left of me start getting launched. My turn gets steadily closer, and after a few seconds, it arrives. I brace myself against the launch pad and use its momentum to push myself off of it as it launches me.

After being launched, I prepare to land, using my glyphs for safety. That's the easy part and the least of my worries. My main concern is finding Ruby, as that's not a guarantee. _Think, Weiss. What can you do to make sure you're with Ruby? You could search for her specifically and not make eye contact with anyone else. No, that might not work. What if I walk right past her without realizing it? Well, maybe if you just do what you did last time, she'll find you. Now, what did I do last time? I think I just stayed here…?_

Just as I begin my musings, I hear footsteps behind me. Turning around, I see exactly what I wanted: Ruby's form running towards me.

Blue meets silver.

"Weiss…" Ruby says, looking at me.

"Hello, Ruby."


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note: So, I finished editing this chapter like, right before I posted it. As opposed to what normally happens with me editing the chapter Thursday/Friday and just working on the next chapters the rest of the week. So, kinda stressful, but it's all good. Originally, this chater was much shorter, but during the editing process itself, I added about 800 words, so I'm happy with myself. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy it!**

After teams were set up, the first few weeks of classes went by as normal. The teams, surprisingly, yet unsurprisingly at the same time, are exactly the same. Things are going very similarly to how they panned out the first time I've lived through this. Team JNPR was, as before, quick to befriend us; we have already hung out a few times. With studying parties, early morning pancakes, and classes, we've gotten quite close already. I suppose that's a difference from my first time, as I've been pushing for doing more around Beacon and with JNPR. The only other noticeable difference: how I'm treating Ruby.

Instead of being a cold and heartless teammate that I was the first time around, I'm now supportive of Ruby as the team leader. I'm no longer a spoiled rich kid that is upset that she didn't get what she wants, because now I have everything I want: Ruby: alive, safe, and sound. Blake and Yang are once again partners, and it's fun seeing them in the stages of learning each other, especially since I know what lies for them together in the future.

Things for me have been getting easier for me to be around her. With each passing day, there's less and less chance that I screw this up by saying something I shouldn't know about. The adjustment process, mentally, has been somewhat draining on me. It's been tough adjusting back into the school mentality. Of course, I don't let anyone see that it's been draining me. Or at least, I try not to. While things have been easier when it comes to me being around Ruby, that doesn't mean that everything is easy.

Right now, she and I are sitting in the dorm working on homework with Blake in her bed reading her book: _Ninjas of Love._ In all of the years that I used to know her, I still never found out what that book was about. Ruby asked me for some help on homework, and who am I to say no to helping such a dear friend in need? While that was my "official" reason of agreeing ti help her, my real reason was to just be with her. Any time I'm around her, my heart beats faster, and now is no different. I keep trying to steal glances at her, admiring how beautiful she is. This has been going on since the first day of classes. There have been a few times that she's almost caught me staring at her, but I manage to look away in time before she could see me. I've caught her staring at me a lot too. I feel like she stares at me a lot more than I stare at her. Any time that I catch her, she looks away and blushes heavily. Those times when I need to get close to her for something, her face flashes that same red.

A few times, I've caught her looking at my answers, but I have decided to not say anything to her. Not yet, anyway. _I'll hold this bit of information for a later time_. _At least it's better than her doodling on her paper like when we started working on this assignment._

My latest staring attempt has been going on for about one or two minutes. She's been extremely focused on her homework, her tongue sticking out of her mouth slightly as she's working on her homework.

 _She's so cute…_ I think to myself, smiling.

"Hey, Weiss?" Ruby asks, still concentrating on her work.

"Yes?" I ask, still staring at her. A few seconds pass, and it doesn't occur to me that she's now taken to staring right back at me with those beautiful silver globes that are her eyes. The sudden visage appearing before me snapping me back into this reality. I mentally shake myself out of whatever trance-like state that was.

"W-why are you staring at me?"

What I can see of her face flashes a slight scarlet as she asks me. I feel my cheeks heat up in tandem as I realize that what I thought was me being sneaky, was actually incredibly obvious.

"O-oh… I was… Umm… S-sorry, you were just so focused, and it was… it was kind of intriguing." It was only partially a lie. While part of me did think it was intriguing, most of me was just admiring her, the fact that I'm here with her, living through my life again still new to me. _It's unreal, almost like a dream. A dream that I don't want to wake up from._

"Oh, well… okay. Thanks…" She just kind of smiles weakly at me and goes back to working on her assignment, looking at me from the corner of her eye a lot. A silence falls upon us soon after that. Ruby from how socially awkward she was/is at this point in her life, and me due to how embarrassed I am over the fact that I wasn't nearly as sneaky as I thought I was. _That was so awkward._ I think. I look back and start working on my homework again: The History of Remnant. Professor Oobleck sure likes to assign readings any time that he can. Seeing as how I already took these courses, however, most of this is just a recap of the things I already knew, so it's easy.

"Weiss?" Ruby asks.

"Yes, Ruby?"

"How do you know so much?"

I have to think for a second to make sure I know exactly what I'm saying. "I had to learn a lot of things growing up. Studying was really all that I did because my father wanted me to be perfect. I didn't have the same childhood as a lot of people did. There wasn't fun, only studying to be the best." I decide that's a reasonable explanation, and it's true for the most part.

Ruby slams down her book, which kind of startles me. With an extremely determined face, she stands up and grabs my hand. I blush a bit at the sudden contact.

"Ruby, wh-what are you doing?" I ask, flustered.

"You said you never really got to have fun, so we're gonna stop studying for now and go have fun! Follow me!" Her smile is infectious. She pulls me along by my arm. My heart starts beating faster.

"O-okay…" I stutter out. _I can't say no to her. She's too cute. I don't know how anyone being this adorable or cute can be legal. She better not take me by the police station. I'll turn her in, because being this cute is a crime._

"Have fun, you guys." Blake nonchalantly waves to the two of us from behind her book.

"Where are we going, Ruby?" I ask, somewhat shouting even though I don't mean to. The sound of my heart beating so loudly in my ears from nervousness is probably to blame. It's hard judging how I sound when I can't hear how loud everything else is.

Ruby turns around mid-stride, still continuing in her original direction and laughs. _Such a cute laugh. I missed it so much._ I smile.

"You'll find out, Weiss. It's a surprise." She smiles back. And without another word, she speeds me off towards some unknown location. On the trip to wherever we're going, we see something strange. As we're walking through the late afternoon air in the direction of what is looking to be the airship docks, a certain blonde guy can be seen running towards us.

"Ah! Get them off of me!" He screams, still running towards us, but far enough in the distance that I can't see what's going on. Ruby and I briefly glance at each other before looking back at the scene at hand. In the small amount of time that Ruby and I shared a glance at each other, Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren all come into view, also running after Jaune. He's gotten close enough so that we can see that he's swatting away a bunch of very angry pigeons that have swarmed around his head. Ruby starts laughing, and I follow suit a few seconds later. As Jaune runs past us, Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren stop for a brief second of rest, their breathing heavy.

"What happened?" I ask between fits of laughter. I try to start slowing down my breaths to keep myself from laughing, but it's not working.

"He upset some pigeons, as you've probably seen by now. He was feeding them bread, but then he ran out." Pyrrha explains. We start laughing even more. Nora joins in on the laughing as well before they start heading off in their own direction again, this time walking after Jaune instead of running.

With this event now behind us, we resume our original path. We end up boarding an airship and heading right into the very center of Vale.

"So NOW are you going to tell me where we're going, you dolt?" I ask, looking around the airship. There are a few other people sitting in some of the seats along the back wall, though Ruby and I are standing in the front area. Ruby smiles at the name. She knows that it's just a joking kind of thing, almost a pet name, that I've given her.

"Nope! I told you, it's a surprise. We're gonna have fun, okay? Trust me, I promise." Another smile.

"Okay… I'll trust you." I say, trying to remember all of the places that Ruby liked going to in Vale, the ones we didn't find together that we liked. There's that one café that's out in the Western side of the City that Ruby threw up at after eating too many cookies. Or maybe it's the park on the Eastern side that Ruby and I took Zwei to, and Ruby fell in a puddle because Zwei pulled on the leash too hard. I smile at the memories attached to my favorite places: the places where I was with Ruby. And then I smile wider with the realization that I will be making a lot more new memories with Ruby now that I'm here with her again. Currently, she was explaining to me her favorite part of the book she had just finished. The one that Blake was reading about the man with two souls. Blake got Ruby into it. I listen to her and

"And so, this one par, there was this guy that-" She stops and looks at me listening to her. "You've been smiling a lot lately, Weiss. What's up?"

"I'm just happy, that's all. Especially now. At this point in my life, no one has shown me as much kindness as you have. It's… nice." I blush. I can't tell her that I love her yet. It would be way too soon.

"Well, I'm glad to hear that." She looks at the ground, avoiding eye contact with me. I can still see a large smile forming on her face though. A few seconds go by before Ruby rushes to the side of the airship. "We're landing!" She once again grabs ahold of my hand and drags me out of the ship. Once out of the airship, I do my best to orient myself to the position of the sun, that way I know which way Ruby is taking me. Much to my surprise, she went neither East nor West, but North. We navigate through the city with a Northbound destination, apparently. We end up walking for a good ten minutes, enjoying the late afternoon autumn breeze, before Ruby starts slowing down. The building we approach is round, and has the words "Ice Skate" on the front.

"Ruby. What are we doing here?" I look at the building, presumably an ice skating rink, and then back to Ruby. It's been some time since I've been ice skating, and I'm kind of nervous about messing up.

"This is where we're going to have fun!" Ruby says, beaming at me. Once she sees the nervousness on my face, she asks, "Are you okay?"

Nodding, I say, "Yes, Ruby. I'm fine; just a little nervous. It's been some time since I last went ice skating."

"No way!" Ruby looks jokingly dumbfounded. "THE Weiss Schnee nervous about embarrassing herself? Afraid the press are gonna snap a picture and sell it to the dark web?" She grins mischievously.

"Ummmmm, no," I deadpan. _I'm nervous about embarrassing myself in front of you._

"Fine, fine. Let's go inside, okay? I mean, if you want to anyway..." Ruby once again grabs my hand. I'm so glad that when she does this, she's not looking at me, but forward so that she can't see the blush creeping onto my cheeks.

"S-sure thing, Ruby. I'd love to." I agree and follow her inside.


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note: Here we go! Another Thursday, another chapter! This one was actually really fun to write. Less fun to edit, but still fun. Anyway, enjoy!**

The ice skating rink was almost empty when we got in. A teenaged-looking snow fox faunus greeted us at the door. _How fitting, a snow fox at an ice skating rink._

"Hello, welcome to Dry Ice Skating Rink. Two?" She asks, motioning towards us. Ruby nods. After telling her our shoe sizes, we get our skates and go out onto the rink. There's another family of four that looks to be teaching their youngest how to skate, but other than them and the one snow fox faunus, Ruby and I are the only ones here. We get our shoes on, and we step out onto the rink. Well, I step out first. I feel that familiar rush of skating and remember how much I really love doing it. I skate forward to the other side of the rink and do a quick look back at Ruby. Ruby, well, Ruby starts going out onto the rink, her face confident. And while she shows confidence, she just kind of tumbles onto the rink. On her first step, she slips and falls onto her back. But does she give up? Oh, no. She keeps going. Every step she takes, she falls flat.

"Ruby?" I ask, skating right up to the front of her, concerned.

"Yes, Weiss?" She asks, looking up from the ground.

"You've never skated before, have you?" Our eyes meet, and she looks away from embarrassment

"I have! Once… a few years ago…" her face starts turning red, and I can't help but smile. _She's adorable._

"Come on, take my hand. I'll teach you how." Hesitantly, Ruby grabs my hand and I help her up. She's shaky, but holding onto my hand, she's standing.

I run her through the basics of skating, and she catches on somewhat quickly. She stays up for a few minutes at a time instead of seconds before falling. Progress is progress. A part of me is proud of her for learning and improving so quickly, but a part of me is sad that the better she gets, the less she falls; and the the less she falls, the less I'll get to see the absolutely adorable face that she makes when she does.

Her eyes go wide as she falls. But then on impact with the ground, her nose scrunches and her eyes squint. After that, she looks up at me from the ground with the cutest pout I've ever seen and little puppy dog eyes. And then followed by a smile as I help her up each time. After about an hour of teaching Ruby how to skate, her normally carefree and jubilant attitude slowly fading into a more sombre one. She slows down her skating and ends up stopping behind me. I quickly turn around and make my way over to her.

"Ruby, what's wrong?" I ask after stopping next to her.

"Weiss, you've been trying to help me learn how to skate this whole time. You haven't done anything that's fun for you, and that's why we came here. When I first did this, it was a lot easier. Or at least, it felt easier than now. I'm sorry for letting you down, Weiss."

"Ruby, of course I'm having fun. I've been having fun since you decided that's what we were going to do." Silver orbs shine up to me.

"It was fun, wasn't it?" a smile accompanies the now happy tone in her voice.

"Yes, it has been fun. But I don't know, Ruby…" I trail off. Her smile fades a little bit. "I don't think I've had _enough_ fun. Let's keep going for a while more, and then do you have anything else we can do?" Her smile lights up once again: a sight that I can never really be tired of, even if I tried to force it.

"Well, I might know of a few places…" she smiles. I smile back. We keep skating around for another half an hour or so, enjoying one another's company.

As we ended our skating, we go back to the edge of the rink, take our shoes off, and walk to the counter laughing about how many times Ruby fell compared to me. The total was somewhere around 50 or so times compared to my impressive 0. We approach the front desk where the faunus is there, waiting for us.

"Did you ladies have fun out there?" She hands us back our shoes. Ruby nods excitedly.

"Yes we did…" I trail off as I look her up and down for a name tag of any sort so that I could be polite and address her by name, but can't find one.

"See something you like?" the lady asks, a smirk on her face. _I guess she thought I was checking her out when I was looking for her name tag, if they even do that here._

I look away, a little flustered. "Th-that's not what I was doing. I'm sorry."

"Hey, to be fair, I do."

I look back at her, surprised to see her looking me up and down, her eyes hungry, her smirk very apparent, and her ears standing at attention. I blush.

"Ahem" Ruby coughs. She's standing behind me awkwardly, her hands clasped in front of her, and her face downcast.

"Oh, sorry. I didn't realize. You shouldn't be checking out other girls in front of your girlfriend," she says, slightly judgmentally and with a smirk.

"She's not… we're not… it's not like that!" Ruby flusters, her face red with blush; meanwhile, I'm too embarrassed to even say anything. I can feel my face flush more than it has any time in the past 3 weeks. _I wish we were like that. That's one of the two reasons that I'm here now._

"Whatever you say, Red." She rolls her eyes and looks at me. "In that case, cutie, here's my number. Message me or call me, whatever you want." She winks. I gingerly take the slip of paper with numbers scribbled on it that she's extending towards me. Immediately after taking the paper, I realize that I didn't WANT to take the paper, that my brain seemed to go on autopilot. I curse myself internally.

"Th-thanks…" I say, still extremely embarrassed, trying not to meet the eyes of either Ruby or Jemma. I exit the building quickly, head bowed and cheeks tinted crimson. I throw the piece of paper as soon as I can. I wait outside of the building for Ruby, thoughts swirling in my mind that I hadn't thought of before.

 _I don't even know if Ruby LIKES girls, let alone ME. And she seemed like she was disgusted by the idea of us being girlfriends. Am I really going to get what I want here?_

Just then, the door opens and out walks Ruby. I walk up next to her. She's still kind of blushing.

"So where's that paper with her number on it?" She asks, almost immediately. Her voice is almost akin to a schoolkid teasing her friend.

"I threw it away," I huff, crossing my arms, feeling like an idiot for taking the paper in the first place, especially with Ruby standing right there.

"Why'd you do that?" She asks me. While she obviously tries to hide it, I can see a slight change in her eyes. It's small, but there is a newfound glint in them for a split second.

"Because I'm not interested in her. She's not my type." As I say it, I try to make it obvious that I'm really not interested in this girl, but in Ruby. I look at Ruby after saying this, hoping that it'll make it more noticeable that it's her that's my type, not this fox faunus..

"Same. Yeah, she's really pretty, but she's not the pretty that I like." Ruby explains, walking us towards the next location. I'm not paying attention to the direction that we're going because this conversation has the potential to answer some of my questions that I had earlier.

"Oh? So what kind of pretty is your type?" I prod, not wanting to dig too deep yet.

"Well, it's gotta be real beauty. Not this fake beauty that a lot of people have these days, but like actual, real, genuine beauty. And I'm not talking about using makeup or not, I'm talking about inner beauty. The kind of girl that will make you feel happy just by being around them. Like, funny and caring and sweet and affectionate and not overly confident and just, yknow?" Ruby rambles on, surprisingly finishing all of that in the same breath she started it with.

 _Wait, she said "the kind of girl". As in, she does like girls. Wow, well that answered that._ A surge of emotions rises in my chest, happiness and relief being the chief ones. "Wow, you certainly know what you want," I say.

"Yeah, I'd like to think so." Silence falls after that as we keep walking, but shortly after it starts, Ruby speaks up again, somewhat awkwardly. "So… what's your type, Weiss?"

 _You._

"Ummmmm, I need to think about that." I lie.

 _It's you._

Gathering my thoughts, I come up with something that won't give that desire away, yet stays true to what I think. "I think that a big part of who I like is who I enjoy being around. Being able to be around a person through anything is very important to me: forming the bonds necessary for a healthy and happy relationship and understanding the person well enough before dating so that we can make each other happier in the relationship."

 _You're my type, Ruby Rose._

"If… if she… if she can make me happy with just a smile; if she can make my heart flutter with a simple greeting; then she is my type. So I guess it's not a type, but more of a feeling." I'm rambling again and sound like a lovesick schoolgirl, what with all the talk about what my type is, and then the dreamy voice that I ended up having during my explanation.

 _I love you._

By the time I'm done explaining, Ruby has stopped in front of a small café. It turns out that we were walking West the entire time.

 _This is so much harder than I thought. My feelings are so strong, but I can't do anything now. Or can I? I could ask her out now… No, that's too soon. And right after talking about my type. How cheesy is that? But I can't just do nothing forever. Waiting like this hurts. Coming back in time, I thought that everything would be easier because I knew how I felt, and I could just start off right to it… But it's so much harder than I ever could have thought. I just want to wrap my arms around Ruby, push her up against the wall and kiss her… But that's not an option right now. It may never be an option. No, stop thinking like that, Weiss. Just be patient. All good things to those who wait._

"I like that description, Weiss. I think… I think it suits you. Er… your personality." Ruby says before taking me inside the café. She stumbles over her own words a little bit. I can't help but chuckle to myself at how endearing it sounds. But it's a shallow laugh, because as soon as it's done, the feeling of existential dread once again takes hold of my mind.

"Thank you, Ruby…" I whisper under my breath, not really sure if that's the correct response to that.

We get inside and take a seat. After about half a minute, a waitress comes up and asks for our orders.

"Hey there, you two. Can I start you off with something to drink?" She asks, looking between us.

"I'll take some coffee." Ruby says with a large smile. I make eye contact with her, my face somewhat stern. "Decaf…" she trails off, defeated.

"I will have a water, no ice," I respond.

"Great! I'll have those out for you real soon. Go ahead and look through your menus to see what you would like to have, and I'll be right back."

The time spent waiting for the waitress to return is filled with awkward silence as I think about what was said. Ruby also sits in silence, whether that be because she's thinking about what was said like I am, because she can sense me deep in thought and not want to bother me, or some other reason unbeknownst to me. The smooth jazz in the background making it easy for me to slip into my thoughts.

 _She likes girls… that much is clear. But me? That's still up in the air. I doubt it, honestly. I came back in time and space to find a way to save Ruby from her fate, yes. But also to fall in love with her all over again, and then to try and get her to be mine. But what if I never get that to happen? And if I do, then what? I don't know what a relationship is like, let alone how to have a relationship while I'm living a lie. How can I love her without telling her what has happened… what I am?_

"Here you go, ladies. Are you ready to order?" The waitress pulls me out from my musings.

"Yeah, I'll take some of your chocolate chip cookies!" Ruby says enthusiastically.

"Okay, one plate of chocolate chip cookies for you, and for you, ma'am?" The waitress asks, looking at me.

"Oh! I'll uh… I'll take some… strawberry cheesecake." I fold my menu up and hand it to the waitress and stare off into space again. I don't have to look through the menu. This is always what I got when I went with Ruby back then. _Or is it forward then? It's hard to know what to say when referring to the old life._ It seems like seconds before she comes back with our food.

"Here you go, ladies. Enjoy your date!" She says, walking away.

"It's not…" Ruby starts, but quickly fades once she realizes that the waitress can't hear her anymore. Ruby blushes again and starts shifting awkwardly in her chair. I look down at my hands and start wringing them together.

 _She's also so defensive that we're not on a date. That doesn't bode well._

Once again, a wave of doubt floods in through my mind. _She can't feel the same way about me. I knew her for fourteen years before she died in my time, and she never once said anything about interests in love. What makes you think that you're going to change that in three weeks?_ The doubt is making my anxiety flare up, but I'm trying my best to hide it so that Ruby doesn't see.

"So… are you having fun, Weiss?" Ruby asks cautiously, almost like she's afraid to disturb me.

"Yeah, I'm having a lot of fun, Ruby!" I respond with an extremely fake smile. Ruby sees right through my facade, apparently.

"But you're being so quiet, are you sure?" She looks worried. _I can't tell her what's really going on in my mind. Not all of it, at least._

"Yeah, I'm just thinking about something," I say with a sigh, pinching the bridge of my nose. _Great job, Weiss. Now you're making it MORE awkward than it already was._ "

"Is it the stuff those ladies said about it being like a date?"

I flinch a little at how direct she was. "Y-yeah, something like that…" I cough involuntarily, as I wasn't expecting this kind of thing to be talked about so quickly.

"I see…" She trails off. A few moments of silence pass as we both just kind of stare at the food in front of us. I can't help but dread the coming conversation.

 _What's she going to say? Is she going to say that this is nothing? That this is SOMETHING?_ My heartbeat surges.

"Hey Weiss?" Ruby asks, interrupting the quiet between us.

"Yes, Ruby?" The fear that I currently have over the next few words. Those few simple words that will most likely break me.

"Can I tell you something?" Her face is tinted slightly, and a shy smile is stretching its way across her face.

"Yes, Ruby." I swallow, anticipating whatever she's about to say. _She might be telling me that she likes someone else. Or that she knows how I feel and doesn't feel the same. Or maybe she'll just say that she's not looking for anything right now. It would make sense._

"I… I uh…" She trails off, her face extremely red. She looks down at her lap and almost shouts. "Ithinkyou'rereallypretty!"


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note: So, editing this one threw me for a loop. I forgot about a certain scene I wrote here, and reading back over it again really pulled on my heartstrings. Is it weird if what I write myself pulls on my own heartstrings? I think so, but idk. I've been having battles with my inner demons lately, so sometimes it's hard to think straight. Oh well. Anyway, enjoy!**

"Ithinkyou'rereallypretty!" Ruby looks super flustered as she says this to me, head bowed, and a heavy blush covering her face.

Not sure I heard her correctly, I ask her to repeat herself, my heart pounding out of my chest the entire time. "What?" I start to feel light-headed. _If I heard what I think I heard… Then maybe there's a chance for us. That… That would be amazing..._

"I said… Umm…" She trails off, looking around frantically. Eventually she finds the napkin that was sitting in front of her. She grabs that and starts looking around again. I chuckle and pull a pen from my purse. She takes it with a quiet "thank you," and begins writing on the napkin. After a few seconds of quick scratching of the pen on the napkin, said napkin is presented to me by Ruby. Said girl is holding out the napkin to me with both hands, her head down, and a blush creeping onto her face, what little I can see of it. A second passes where I'm not entirely sure what to do, and Ruby starts to fidget. In her chair, she starts rocking back and forth. I reach out to grab the napkin, and as my hands meet it to pull it away, I'm met with some resistance. I look at Ruby and pull the napkin again, though not super hard. Ruby's head dips down even further as she holds onto the napkin with a vice-grip.

"Hey, Ruby… It's going to be okay. Trust me," I say, trying to encourage her to hand me the napkin that she so wants to give me, but not give me at the same time. Ruby raises her head, and our eyes meet. I smile at her, and she smiles back weakly. And with that, she releases the napkin from her grip. "Thank you," I say, still smiling.

" _I think you're really pretty."_ I read the napkin. And then I read the napkin again just to make sure that I'm reading it correctly.

 _Yep, I heard her correctly._ My heart soars. If I didn't have self control, I would have jumped out of the chair and ran around to Ruby to give her a hug and a kiss. But I have self control, so I don't. Instead, I smile. Wider than I've smiled in a long time. It hurts to smile like this, but the amount of joy that I feel at this point in time makes it worth the pain.

Looking up at Ruby, her face is red enough to rival the ever-present cape of hers. I can't help but start laughing; she's just too cute. And now what I've wanted the most might finally become a reality. Ruby's face grows even more red, as impossible as it sounds, and starts getting up. I can see traces of tears in her eyes. I realize that that reaction could be taken badly, especially considering how reluctant she was to give me the note, and how I told her everything would be okay. _I'm pretty sure telling a girl that she's pretty and her laughing at you can be demoralizing. I need to say something, quick!_

"Wait, wait, wait. Ruby, I'm not laughing at that!" I touch her arm with my hand. She stops moving, looking at me hopefully.

"Well, I kind of was, but not for the reason that you think. It's just that you are really cute when you're so flustered," I explain. She sits back down and mutters something under her breath. Then an idea hits me. I grab the pen and napkin and begin writing something. This catches Ruby's attention, and as soon as I'm done, I hand Ruby back the napkin. On it, the writing of " _I think you're really pretty too."_

She reads the napkin. And then she looks at me. And then back down to the napkin. Her face heats up to a point that, in all of my years of knowing her, has never happened. Truth be told, this is the first time I've shown Ruby express any kind of romantic feelings at all, even if it's just being shy about calling someone pretty. It's different, and I like it. She looks at me again, and our eyes meet. I smile at her warmly. She quickly gets up and rushes away in the direction of the bathroom with a quick, "I'll be right back."

I laugh softly to myself and take a bite out of my strawberry cheesecake. The taste of it confuses me. It's a weird feeling when your mind knows what something tastes like, but your taste buds don't. The shock of the feeling sends me back. A flash in my eyes, and the scenery in front of me changes.

 _Blake, Yang, Ruby, and I had just completed a challenging mission from the school. It was a fairly large Grimm nest, and we had gotten help from Professor Port for the mission. It went without problems, and we celebrated. This location was insisted upon by Yang and Ruby. So we went. It was my first time at this place, and not knowing what to get, I asked Ruby for her opinion. She recommended the Strawberry Cheesecake, and I had gotten it ever since. It quickly became my favorite. The faces that the rest of the team made when I took my first bite are still ingrained into my memory. Ruby with her eager smile, anticipating my reaction to her recommendation. Blake with the common expressionless… expression. And Yang with that trademark smirk as she watched Ruby be happy. It was a good day. That memory fades into more, each memory a subsequent visit to this establishment._

 _That time I actually told a joke that Ruby liked and made her have strawberry smoothie come out of her nose as she laughed._

 _The time that someone proposed in the café, and Ruby and I were there to watch. I didn't watch the proposal. I just looked at Ruby hoping to do that with her some day._

 _The day before we left on our last mission together. I had planned to tell her how I felt, but I chickened out, telling myself "After the mission." But there are only so many more missions one can go on._

The image of Ruby impaled there on the branch after being knocked into it appears in my head. I try to shake it out, but it doesn't leave. The memory of after the event starts playing.

 _Blood. So much blood. After taking out the last Grimm, I rushed back to Ruby. She was a trooper. She was still alive, struggling to breathe. I tried pulling her off of the branch, but as soon as I started to try, she screamed. Terrified, I stopped. Knowing there was nothing I could do to help her, I simply hugged her. I hugged her and cried._

" _It's going… going to be… okay, Weiss… don't… cry…" Ruby said in between pained breaths._

" _Ruby, I don't want you to go!" I yelled._

" _Don't… worry… about me… Live… your life… for… both of us." She managed to say before her body went limp in my arms._

" _Ruby! Don't leave me! Dammit, don't leave me! I need you! I love you…" Tears streamed down my face onto my bloodstained clothes. There was no getting this amount of blood out. Nor the pain._

 _Three days later, there was a funeral. Or, what little of a funeral one could have when Grimm came calling, feeding off of the negative emotions. There was no stopping my tears or my wrath, as Grimm after Grimm fell by my hand. I never hunted again after that day._

"Weiss!" Ruby's voice ends the horrid memory. I blink and look around. I'm not watching Ruby bleed out. I'm not at her funeral. I'm here with her in the café. I look around some more, including down at my hands and lap to see them covered in tears. Apparently I had been crying. It's not that hard to imagine that I was, though. The feeling of absolute terror and despair slowly ebbs out of me again as I recover.

Ruby's voice sounds again. "You don't have to finish it. It's your first time here, so you don't really know what you can get. If you think it's that bad, you can get something else." I look up to Ruby, who had apparently come back from the bathroom, and see that she has a light-hearted smile adorning her lips, while her eyes… Her eyes betray those lips. Behind her eyes: a large amount of worry and concern is obvious.

 _I mean, yeah. A lot of people don't just break down while eating strawberry cheesecake for no apparent reason. I'd be concerned too if I were her._

"It's okay, Ruby. The cake is absolutely divine, thank you for your concern." I say, laughing at her joke. _And yet another thing that I love about her. She always tries to find a way to cheer me up. It really means a lot to me that she's willing to do that._

"So then… why were you crying?" She asks, the concern now more apparent on her face. I sigh. I start to feel a queasiness in my stomach as the memory is once again brought to the forefront of my mind. _What can I say to her? I can't tell her the truth! Or, wait a minute… maybe I can…_

"I uh… I had a nightmare recently, and in it, I saw you die. And uh… I remembered it." _It's… kind of the truth. I did remember seeing her die, and I did have a nightmare on the first night of Beacon about it. So… I didn't technically lie, right? Right._ "You know, Ruby, I've only known you for a short time, but you already mean a lot to me." I smile again.

"Oh, okay… well if you need to talk to me about anything, I'm here for you, okay?" I nod in response. She smiles and sits down. "And Weiss?" I make eye contact with her after hearing my name. "Thank you for what you said… about me being pretty too… if you don't mind, when you feel better… can we talk about it?"

"Sure thing, Ruby. We'll talk about it." We both smile at each other and continue on with the night. _The ball is in Ruby's court now with what she wants to do. I know what I want, but does she know what she wants? It's up to her now. Whenever she wants to talk about it, I'll be here for her to talk about it._

The rest of the short "meal", if you can call it that, passed by in relative ease. Small talk and eating were really it. Near the end, the waitress came up again and handed us the check. I paid for it, and then we left, heading in the direction of the airship station.

"Thank you for this, Ruby. This was a lot of fun." I smile. She smiles back.

"I'm glad you think that, Weiss. We should do this again sometime. I had a lot of fun. I'm really sleepy though." She yawns as she says this. She looks absolutely adorable right now. Sleepy Ruby is very cute.

"Well, we're almost at the airship station. That means we're almost back to Beacon, and you can go to sleep," I say, giving her a sympathetic smile.

"Fiiiiiiiine. But just know that I will not hesitate to complain about how sleepy I am if it takes a while." Ruby says, probably only half-joking. Her smile makes me think a little more than half, but I can't be sure.

About halfway down our walk, Ruby freezes on the sidewalk. Confused as to why she would do that, I turn back around to look at her. She's currently pointing and hyperventilating at a movie poster that looks like it's been recently and hastily put up on the side of a building. The movie? It's an adaptation of that one book that Ruby was talking about earlier. She was obsessed with that movie back in my time, or reality, or whatever.

"Oh, hey. Isn't that the book you were talking about?" I ask, pointing to the poster and pretending to play dumb."

"Yeah, it is. I didn't know they were making this! This is… I don't know what this is!" She exclaims, exasperated. This confuses me as she could all but rave about it after seeing it in my time.

"You don't know? I thought you really liked the book."

"I do, but I've heard that the movies are never as good as the books, and so… I don't know. I want to see it, but I kinda don't wanna ruin the book for me if the movie is bad." I mean, it makes sense.

"Oh come on, I'm sure that you'd enjoy it if you see it. Movies are going to be different from the books; that's just how it is. But that doesn't mean that you shouldn't want to see it." I explain.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. Maybe we could go see it as a team one time. That would be fun." Ruby suggests before walking back towards the airship docks. I follow her.

We get to the airship station shortly after that little side trip. The wait is short, and we get on an airship destined for Beacon quickly. We end up getting seats near the back. Ruby looks extremely drowsy right now, as she sits next to me.

A few minutes into the ride, I feel something resting on my shoulder. When I look over, I see Ruby's head there and immediately look away. My heart starts to beat faster. I look again, and for longer. After a little bit, I can hear some light, almost non-existent snoring. _She fell asleep. That dolt._ I smile to myself and stop moving. I might as well let her sleep now. After all, it's not like I don't enjoy it.


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Note: So I didn't get to editing until like, two hours before when I normally post because I've been obsessed with the newest Twenty One Pilots album, Trench. If you haven't listened to it yet, you should. There are some good songs on that. But yeah, that and D &D has been taking up a lot of my free time. Also, I was on break at the end of last week, so having fun was another thing I was doing. Anyway, enough about my life. That's not what you're here for. Enjoy the chapter!**

The following days were seemingly normal if not for them being comprised of glances between Ruby and I. Short though these glances were, they conveyed something that neither of us said to each other since the time at the cafe. The feeling seemed to burn away at me. It was as if both of us knew we wanted more, but neither wanted to make the first move out of fear.

 _I really need to muster up the courage to ask her out. Waiting any more is unbearable. This feeling is burning away at me. And it's so awkward sometimes._

"Weiss!" Yang's voice pierces my thoughts.

"Sorry, Yang. What were you saying?" I say awkwardly, looking at her after partaking in a particularly long aforementioned glance. I look around the dorm room after coming back to reality. Ruby has her headphones on and is working on something. What exactly it is, I'm not sure though. I'm sitting on my bed, and Yang has just plopped down next to me.

"You're doing it again," she says.

"Doing what?" I ask innocently. _She caught me again, didn't she?_

"You're staring at my sister again, Weiss." Yang says, her voice kind of irritated.

"S-sorry…" I say looking away and blushing. _Yep. She caught me._

"Seriously, just ask her out already. You're both clearly obsessed with each other. You can't keep your eyes off of each other." She rolls her eyes.

"So you're… okay with that?" I ask, unsure of what I'm hearing. _The Yang that I knew would be super protective of Ruby around me. She wasn't even okay with me falling for Ruby until a few years after graduation. This is weird._

"I mean, I guess. If Ruby is into girls, and she likes you, who am I to stop her? And it's clear that you have… something that you feel about her. And you're not mean, so I don't think I'll have to worry about you hurting her…" Yang trails off. This entire time, she's been looking at me and messing with her hair. After, she closes her eyes and stops playing with her hair. When she opens them again, the commonly lilac eyes have changed to a deep red. "Right?" She asks with a bit of venom in her voice.

"N-no, Yang. I won't hurt Ruby." I gulp. _I don't know why she would think that. Granted, she doesn't know the details of me in this timeline._

"Good!" She smiles. The sudden change of tone catches me by surprise. "Now go getter her, slugger," she says giving me a punch to the arm.

"Ow!" I yell. I didn't really see the blow coming, so I couldn't get my aura up in enough time. Plus I was distracted by her attitude change. That, and the fact that moments before, Ruby snuck a quick peek at me before turning away quickly.

"Sorry! Guess I hit harder than I thought. Oh well, it'll heal fast." Yang shrugs.

 _Is asking her right now the best option? Let's run some pros and cons of asking her right now. Pros, I'd know if she wanted to early on instead of waiting a long time, the other night is probably on her mind right now considering how recent it was. Cons, if she says no, then all of this will be for nothing. So far, two pros and one con. I guess I'm doing it now._

Sighing, I get up and move away from her, heading towards Ruby. Looking back, I see that Yang has put up two thumbs up for me. I shake my head and smile. As I get closer to Ruby, I can see now that she's working on homework while listening to music with her headphones. Or at least, is pretending to. We've been in the dorm for about an hour now, and there's only one question that's been answered. Due to her headphones, Ruby didn't hear me approach, because right as I'm about to reach her, she attempts to look in the direction that I was, only to find me a few paces away from her. Startled, she jumps out of her chair and onto the floor, removing her headphones in the process.

"Haha! That was funny! Do it again!" Yang laughs, clapping her hands together. She's on the floor on her side.

Embarrassed, Ruby looks up from the ground with a frown and a flush on her face. "That's not funny, Yang!"

Yang shrugs. "I don't know, kind of is. Anyway, Blake wanted me to join her at the gym sometime. This seems like as good an opportunity as any. See you guys," she says before getting up and walking out of the dorm room. Right before she leaves, she flashes me a thumbs up and her signature smile. She closes the door behind her.

Shaking my head, I look down at Ruby. "Are you okay?" I stretch my hand out to help her up. She takes my hand and pulls on it, trying to get up. If I hadn't braced myself, I would have fallen over the chair on top of her. _And that would have been very, very awkward._

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just didn't expect you to be so close when I looked up…" Ruby says, her hand on her neck and face reddening.

"To look at me," I say, sounding serious, but also trying to be playful. I know she was looking at me; she's been doing it a lot lately.

"I mean… kinda… sorta…" she trails off for a bit before looking at me in the eyes. "Yeah, yeah I was." A blush creeps onto both her cheeks and mine.

"Mhm, I see. You've been doing that a lot lately, haven't you?" I love teasing Ruby. It's so fun. Plus, this is a good way to lead into what I want to talk about. Two birds with one stone and all that.

"Hey, you keep looking at me too! I'm not the only one failing at being sneaky!" Ruby gets up and sits back on her chair, keeping eye contact with me the entire time.

"That may be true, but I think you've been looking at me more." I laugh.

"Well, how do you know how much I'm looking at you unless you're looking at me when I look at you, and therefore looking at me more?" She counters, pointing a finger at me with an over dramatic flourish.

"Alright, alright. You win, Ruby," I concede, raising my hands defensively. I chuckle quietly, and silence quickly overtakes the room. It's my turn to act. _Okay, Weiss. The room is quiet now. Nobody is talking, so you can't interrupt. This is the time. It's now. You WILL ask her out. It's all that you want. So take it._

My heart starts pounding. _She must be able to hear it. It's so loud in my ears; it's almost deafening._ _Just ask her already, you fool!_

"Hey, Ruby?" I blurt out, quickly ending the silence.

"Yeah, Weiss?" Ruby looks at me, her silver eyes meeting my own in a way that comforts me like no one else can.

"I was wondering… If you… wanted to…" I trail off, nervous out of my mind, my pulse beating faster than it has in a while, my palms sweaty, and my knees shaking. My careful practiced speech was already forgotten.

"What is it, Weiss?" She takes my hand in hers and smiles. My nerves fade almost immediately. I smile back and find the courage to finish my question.

"Do you want to go out with me? Like, on a date?" I ask, still a little awkward, but asked nonetheless. I can feel my face heat up with a blush, and upon looking at Ruby, her face is caught in a blush as well.

"I've uh… never been on a date." Ruby laughs after saying it.

"I haven't either, Ruby. But I think it's kind of like what we did the other day, just with a… romantic… implication behind it." I say, stressing the word romantic to make sure she knows what she'd be agreeing to.

"Sounds fun! Yes, Weiss, I accept your date!" Ruby nods and smiles, a blush on her face. She looks away from me and smiles wider after she says that. I involuntarily smile to myself. _I've been doing a lot of smiling lately._ I think to myself, but I quickly brush it off. _Smiling is good for me. With how much crying I did before coming back, it's good that I'm able to smile as much as I do._ And then it hits me; _I'm going on a date with Ruby… I'm going on a date with Ruby! Ruby Rose! Goal achieved!_

"C-can I have a h-hug?" I ask, looking at Ruby shyly. Ruby looks at me and blushes. She nods slightly, a small smile forming on her lips. I move up to her and awkwardly wrap my arms around her. My hand accidentally bumps into her arm. She hugs me back with little hesitation.

A few seconds later, there is a loud scream from outside the dorm room. Ruby and I immediately get up and rush outside, looking for the person responsible for said scream. Upon opening the door, we see something unexpected. Yang is leaning up against the wall to the left of the door, and Nora and Ren are standing out in the middle of the hallway. Nora looks excited, and Ren looks… well... Ren. Nora screams as soon as we leave the dorm room, and immediately, I understand the who and the why of the scream.

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH! You two are going on a date! You guys are like, perfect for each other!" Her eyes go wide, and she gasps dramatically. "Ruby, Pyrrha and I are going to get you ready for your date! When is it?"

"I'm surprised that you don't know that we didn't decide that, considering you were eavesdropping," I say under my breath, but enough for Ruby to hear me. She giggles a little bit before responding.

"We haven't decided yet. When do you wanna take me out, Weiss?" All eyes look to me. _I didn't think of this yet! You dolt! Think of something quickly! Idiot! I was so worried about asking her out on the date that I forgot about all of the details!_ "How about… Friday, two hours after classes end?" I suggest.

Nora scoffs, apparently not having any of it. "We're going to need more than two hours, Weiss. Make it three, and you've got a deal." Ren coughs, and Nora turns to him.

"Nora, this is Ruby's date. Not yours," he scolds.

"Right… Sorry…" Nora deflates. Ren seems to be one of the only people able to deflate Nora like that besides Nora herself.

"Three hours sounds good to me!" Ruby says, giving a somewhat hesitant thumbs up to Nora, which bolsters her confidence once again.

"Great!' Nora and I both say at the same time. We look at each other, and then burst out into laughter. Nora and Ren end up leaving back to their room shortly after that, and Ruby walks back into our dorm shortly after Nora and Ren go into theirs. That leaves just the two of us in the hall, Yang and I.

"Weren't you supposed to be going to the gym to meet Blake?" I ask Yang.

"Yeah, well this seemed pressing to know about. And Blake will understand." Yang shrugs. I walk over to Yang and punch her arm. She doesn't even flinch.

"That's for earlier." I say, smugly.

"Princess, if you want to pay back for earlier, you'd have to do like, ten of those, maybe more." Yang teases, sticking her tongue out at me.

I punch her again. This time, much harder. This time, she flinches.

"And that is for telling Ren and Nora." I turn around and walk back into the dorm room and begin planning what Ruby and I are going to do on our date. I turn back around and look at Yang again, "And Yang?" She looks at me and makes eye contact with me. "Thank you," I smile _It's finally happening._


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Note: Sorry about the delay on this chapter. It was supposed to be released over 24 hours ago, BUT this week had been absolutely full of stuff to do. Three midterms, a huge ARTS 222 project (worth 1 and a half letter grades), and marching band. That's a lot. So I apologize for my tardiness, but you won't have to wait much longer! Here's chapter 8!**

Days passed, and the day of the date arrived. As to be expected, I was nervous. Very nervous. I had never gone on a date before. Not in my time before, and definitely not since I got here.

Classes had just ended, and I was going to walk with Ruby back to the dorm, but Nora ended up snatching her before I could do anything.

Sighing in defeat, I walked back to the dorm alone. And there I waited until now. It's been about an hour and a half since I got back, and I've finished prepping for the date I've been waiting a lifetime and a half for. A simple outfit caught my eye in my closet. It's a simple blouse that hangs somewhat loosely on me with a not very noticeable pattern on it; more-so for texture than for actual appearance. I also decided that tonight I'd wear some of the pants that I had. Not jeans, but a sort of formal-ish set of pants. They have a sort of silver sheen to them when in the right light, and in the wrong light, they're a sort of matte black. Maybe dark gray. They're very form-fitting, and because of that, kind of uncomfortable. _But this is for Ruby_. I remind myself. Hair has been done in the normal fashion, and just a slight bit more makeup has been applied. So now I just wait. Waiting has to be one of the toughest thing anyone has to do. The anticipation and excitement in the beginning quickly turns to anxiety as time passes with nothing to do. _I'm so incredibly nervous. How is she able to do this to me? To drive me crazy the way she does? Why have I given her that much power?_

About twenty minutes pass before someone comes through the door: Yang. She's laughing and holding her scroll in her hand.

"You have GOT to see these pictures, Weiss! They're hilarious!" Yang approaches me and shows her scroll to me.

The first picture is Ruby on a bed, working on Crescent Rose and ignoring Nora, who seems to be showing Ruby a few outfit options. "I took this one at the beginning of the… experience. She was so nervous about it that she started working on her weapon to ease her nerves… but Nora wasn't having any of it." I chuckle to myself. _Yeah, that sounds like Ruby._

Yang slides her finger across her scroll to show the next picture in her repertoire: Ruby is now reaching out towards Nora, who now has Crescent Rose and is running towards the other side of the room. This one also has Pyrrha in it. She's in the corner, appearing to be done with the whole ordeal. I can't help but start giggling.

"This," Yang starts, "is Ruby trying to put on makeup herself." She once again slides her finger across the screen. Ruby is smiling sheepishly. Her lipstick is applied sloppily, and her _attempt_ at eyeshadow and eyeliner nearly have Yang rolling on the floor. _I can teach her how to do that better a little later on._

"But luckily," she says in between short laughs. "Pyrrha and Nora were able to fix it before it got too out of hand." And with that, she closes her scroll and looks at me, wiping a tear out of her eye beforehand. I look back up at her expectantly. "What? You think I'm going to show you what they did? You're going to have to wait to see for yourself, princess." I huff in response.

"Fine, Yang. I'll wait another HOUR before Ruby is ready. Only then will I be able to see her. You happy?" I ask facetiously.

"I am. But you're not," she teases, sticking out her tongue. I return the gesture in kind. Yang walks out of the room, laughing to herself, but not before turning back around to look at me. "You look nice, Weiss. She's going to love it." I blush furiously and look away.

"Don't mind her, Weiss. She's as nervous as you are. From what she's told me, this is Ruby's first date," Blake says from her bed. In all honesty, she's been so quiet that I've forgotten she's in here with me. But the words strangely do give me some solace.

"Thank you, Blake. And yes, that's what Ruby told me. It's my first one too…" a hand drops onto my shoulder. I look up to see Blake standing behind me.

"It's going to be great. You haven't heard how she talks about you when you're not around. Everything will be great, Weiss." The words calm me down more than I anticipated. I bend over forward and breathe deeply, easing myself out of the anxiety that's been forming deep in the pit of my stomach since I finished getting ready. I look back up to Blake again.

"Thank you, Blake," I say in between deep breaths.

"You're more than welcome, Weiss." She pulls me into a hug and sets me back down on the chair that I'm in.

"Now, about her talking about me when nobody is around… What does she say about me?" I look at Blake expectantly. She smirks and turns around, now facing away from me.

"I guess you'll have to ask her yourself," She chuckles and climbs into her bed and starts reading, a sly smile on her face.

The rest of the hour passes slowly, with me checking my scroll almost every two minutes it seems. Finally, the time to go and get Ruby approaches. About five minutes 'til, I get up from the desk and head towards team JNPR's room. Yang meets me once again. Another wave of nervousness hits me as I approach.

 _What is she going to say? She doesn't LOOK mad. She doesn't look anything right now, actually. It's a neutral expression. And I don't know what that means… I'm scared._

"Now, I don't think I HAVE to say this, but I'm going to anyway. Take care of my sister tonight. Make her happy. She comes back sad? I punch your face in. She comes back hurt? I punch your face in. She comes back and asks me to punch your face in?"

"I get it, I get it. You'll punch my face in." I sigh. She's still incredibly overbearing with her protectiveness. While I understand why, it still slightly irritating. But only slightly. And that's only because I'm afraid to say very irritating in fear that she'll end me.

"Nope. I'll ask her why. And THEN I'll punch your face in. Okay?" She says with a smile. A very normal smile. Which is why I'm so freaked out by it.

"O-okay…" I agree. I have no intention of hurting Ruby, but the threat along with how jubilant she was when saying it sent a chill down my spine.

"Good! Now, get in there and see your date!" Yang opens the door and pushes me in. I turn around to give her a stern talking to, but before I can say anything, the door is shut behind me. Shaking my head, I turn around and stop in my tracks. Before me stands Ruby. And she looks… well, to say she looks beautiful would be the understatement of the year.

 _She's mesmerizing._

"Hey, Weiss," Ruby says a little hesitantly. I can't speak in response to the avatar of beauty standing in front of me. She looked absolutely amazing. It's refreshing to see Ruby do something with her hair besides just let it be there; and something she had done in these three hours. She had _BANGS_. And my Dust, she looks great with them. Her hair isn't the only thing that catches my attention. She's got on a very cute red t-shirt that fits more than just her personality. And man, does it look good on her. Accompanying that, she's got a short-ish skirt that ends about halfway down her thigh. Realizing exactly how short the skirt is, I avert my eyes before anything else happens. I blush, and many thoughts about wishing the skirt ended sooner begin to fill my head. I shake my head slightly to try and get those thoughts out of my head.

I guess what the Yang from my time said about the increase in… hormones… was true, because I'm definitely feeling something for Ruby right now. Her face doesn't look nearly as… comical as it did earlier in Yang's picture. It looks good. Very good. The amount of makeup applied is very minimalistic. Looking at it, it just seems like some foundation, lipstick, and a bit of eyeliner. But she looks great. Her eyes seem to have more life in them. She looks more mature. Beautiful. Her lips even look a bit plumper because of the lipstick. She looks absolutely breathtaking.

"I think that means she likes it. Score! Good job us!" Nora says after my almost minute of silence, giving Pyrrha a high-five.

"Weiss, are you okay?" Ruby asks, pretending to ignore Nora's statement even though it's obvious she heard it due to the flush that appears on her cheeks afterwards.

"Y-yeah, I'm f-fine," I finally bring myself to say something instead of just staring at her and blushing like mad. "You look… You look great, Ruby." Ruby smiles. "Thank you! You look really good too!"

"Alright you crazy kids! Get out there and have a good night! But not too good of a night!" Nora says while beaming.

"Thanks, Nora!" Ruby smiles warmly and walks past me to the door. A fragrance permeates my nostrils as she does this, the smell a now apparent feature of her process of getting ready that wasn't noticeable until she had moved closer.

The spring-like floral aroma that emanates from my date is strong, but not overpowering in the sense of a prepubescent teenage boy who had just discovered cologne for the first time. But in an easily noticeable way. And that, in combination with who she is and how I feel about her, made it difficult to not push her up against the wall and kiss her senseless. I can feel my face heat up at the need that flushes through me.

 _Weiss, you need to calm down. This whole increase to these desires thing really needs to stop. It's hard to concentrate when all I want to do is to make her mine._

I clear my throat and shake my head to get me back into the reality that is now, here in team JNPR's dorm with Ruby. We bid them all farewell and head out the door. Yang is no longer standing out in the hallway.

"Let's go tell Yang and Blake goodbye." Ruby says walking over to our dorm room. She opens it before shouting , "Hey, we're leaving!" She turns back to look at me.

"Bye, Ruby! Have fun on your date," Yang shouts from the other side of the door. "And Weiss, remember what we talked about. Okay?"

I gulp. "O-okay." I say.

"Bye, guys. Have fun," Blake says, sounding distracted. _Probably by a book._

Ruby looks and me and smiles. "So, Weiss. Where are you taking me on this date?"

I remembered seeing something recently about a movie coming out: the movie adaptation of the book about the man with two souls that Blake was reading for a while. Blake got Ruby into the book, and now that's what she's been reading. She just recently finished it before our trip to the ice rink and the cafe. I had decided after I asked her out that this would be a good date for us since she had admitted that she'd be willing to watch it, granted not the most excited because of her fear of ruining the book. That, and because she was obsessed with this movie when it came out before. We had gone and seen it as a team back in my own reality, and she had raved about it for a few days at least. That's where we're going tonight.

I look back at Ruby with a smirk.

"It's a surprise."


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's Note: Got done editing this one a bit ahead of time. Thankfully, I was afforded more time to do so this week. Anyway, enjoy!**

"It's a surprise."

The look on Ruby's face when I say that is the epitome of cute. Her bright smile replaced with a pout of annoyance. "Weiss," she whines. "Don't do that to me!"

"It's not like you didn't do the same thing to me the other night," I tease in a singsong voice.

"I… You… It's not…" Ruby trails off while looking at the ground, clearly flustered. Her face becomes tinted a slight shade of red as she realizes what's happening right now.

 _Dust, she looks so cute._

"It's not what?" I ask, still smiling a bit. Playing with her like this is so rewarding.

"It's not the same thing…" she sighs, her face drooping slightly. It strikes a chord inside me. I start feeling kind of bad that I made Ruby upset.

"I suppose you're right. I'll tell you what," I say. Ruby's face perks up a little bit. "I'll give you three guesses to see if you can figure out where we're going. I will be completely honest in my answers. Sound good?"

Her face lights up at this. "Okay! I'll guess it for sure!" Ruby says. She looks determined in this. I'm not sure what I have just awakened.

"Okay, well whenever you want to guess, go ahead," I say smugly, expecting her to guess almost immediately; however, much to my surprise, she goes silent. Unsure of what to do, I walk in silence as well. Her face is focused, and her nose is cutely scrunched up up as she tries to think. The scenery passing us lost to her, but not to me. The evening sun catches Ruby's hair in just the right light to accentuate her natural hair color along with those tantalizing red tips that have become the marker of who she is, aside from her hood and infectious smile.

 _I wonder what she's thinking about so hard. She's cute when she's thinking like that. Maybe I should make her guess stuff more._

If nothing else, I find that her silence and intense concentration is a good chance to drink my fill on her appearance.

"Hmmmm…" Ruby starts saying, a minute or so passing since the last time that she spoke. "Is it the ice skating rink? That would be fun!" We're currently on the other side of the city from the Ice skating rink, so I don't know where she came up with that thought process.

I laugh inwardly to myself. "No, it's not the ice skating rink," I say. _But she's right. It would be fun to visit it again… Would that have been a better date?_

"Hmmmm… okay, then. Well maybe, are we going to dinner? It's about that time of day," Ruby guesses.

"Oh, um… no. It's not dinner…" Doubt starts to creep into my mind.

 _Are these the things that she wants to do? What if my plan isn't good enough? What if it's not what she wants? For years I've envisioned what it would be like to be with Ruby, but now that I have my chance, what if I screw it up?_

A softness envelopes my hand, and I'm pulled from my musings. I look down to see Ruby's hand firmly grasping my own. Looking up, I see Ruby standing there. Her face shows an expression of concern.

"Hey, Weiss. I know you put a lot of thought into tonight. So even if it's not something that I expect…" she stops talking for a split second and squeezes my hand with her own. I can feel her shaking slightly, as well as the fact that her palm is sweaty; probably from nervousness. "I know that it's going to be a lot of fun," she finishes and smiles sweetly at me. My heart skips a beat. Maybe, just maybe, there's more here. That she wants to be with me too. The feeling of that grows with each passing minute spent with Ruby.

Walking forward from there, my pace slows down over time until I've eventually stopped moving. Ruby, still holding my hand, is pulled into stopping too. As soon as she stops and turns to look at me, I pull her closer. I wrap my arms around her and hold her close. My eyes start watering up.

"Thank you. You don't know how much that means to hear you say that." I say, trying to hold the tears at bay so that they don't fall. Ruby returns the hug. While she can't see my face, I stealthily raise one hand to my face and wipe my eyes of the tears that are gathering at the edges

 _I'm so blessed in this life to have her so understanding. She makes every day brighter for me._

Ruby breaks from the hug, grabs my hands, and smiles.

"Okay, now let's get going." Ruby smiles, and we both start walking again. Ruby falls in step next to me. I snake my hand into hers nervously. She grabs my hand in return and laces our fingers together. I feel myself heating up, and I start feeling self-conscious.

 _Why do I feel self-conscious about holding hands with Ruby? She's the girl of my dreams, and yet I'm nervous about holding hands with her? What's wrong with me?_

Despite myself, I squeeze her hand and smile.

 _Don't think like that, Weiss. You're just nervous. Now come on and enjoy your date with the best girl._

The rest of the walk to the movie theater is uneventful, with both Ruby and I electing to stay silent and enjoy the scenery. _I wonder what her reaction is going to be? I'm nervous to see what she thinks, but I'm really looking forward to it._

Upon getting to the theater, Ruby's eyes go wide. "We're watching a movie?" She asks excitedly. She bounces up and down slightly on her heels.

"Yes, Ruby. We're watching a movie," I say while leading her inside and paying for the tickets to the movie.

"Oh my Dust! We're watching that movie about the book I just finished! I'm so excited! I was going to bring this up with everyone soon that we should see it as a team, but this… This is great! I was hesitant to see this, but I'm more than happy to if this is our date!"

Ruby leaps at me and envelopes me in a hug. She lets go, and both of us immediately realize what had just happened. Ruby coughs awkwardly as we both look away, blushing.

 _Wow, I knew this was a movie that Ruby liked back in my original reality, but I didn't expect her reaction to be this… much._

I feel a wave of relief roll over her over Ruby's enthusiastic reaction. Smiling shly at the girl I love, I grab her hand and lead her to the doors, holding one open for her. "After you."

Ruby giggles cutely and takes the invite.

"Weiss, are we getting popcorn? We have to have popcorn at the movies," she says, walking towards the concession stand and pulling me along with her. I don't resist and laugh. Ruby's natural cheerfulness is infectious and all my worries are washed aside. The euphoria of the moment nearly makes me feel what I imagine being drunk is like.

"Okay, let's get popcorn." I walk up towards the counter and get in line behind a lovely old couple that are in the middle of deciding what they want to order. When it's our turn, I step up to the counter. Behind it is a boy, probably about Ruby's age, although possibly a year or so older.

"Welcome to Vale Cinemas. How can I help you?" His name tag says Rick.

"Could I have a large popcorn and two large waters, please?" I ask after a few seconds of looking at their menu.

"Water? C'mon, Weiss. You can do better than that. We need soda!" Ruby says from behind me.

I rolly my eyes dramatically. "Fine, what kind of soda do you want?" I ask, turning to face Ruby.

"I want some Coke," she says after a second or two of thinking.

"Okay, so a Coke and a… oh, I suppose I'll indulge myself a little bit. Two Cokes?"

"Sure thing, I'll have that right up for you and your girlfriend." He turns around to get the order. Instead of correcting him to the fact that this was just a first date and that did not mean that she and I are girlfriends, I blush and say a quick "thank you" under my breath. He turns around again and gives me the popcorn and sodas. "Sorry if that was an incorrect assumption. I just saw you two holding hands on the way in. I just assumed. My apologies," he says. I thank him, pay, turn around to see Ruby standing there, blushing almost as much as I can feel myself blushing. Upon making eye contact, both of us look away from the other quickly. My heart pounds.

"H-here's your Coke. I g-got us a large popcorn too. To uh… share… if you're okay with that."

 _Why am I so nervous? I can't even finish a sentence without stuttering through words. Ruby, you have no idea what you do to me. Ugh, I know WHY, but just… WHY? Why can't I be more calm?_

"Yeah, that's okay with me," she says. She takes the Coke from my hands and falls in step next to me. We go through the hallways until we get to the theater that the movie is showing in. We get into the room and find our seats relatively quickly. I'm honestly somewhat surprised that the venue isn't more full with people. 'The Man with Two Souls' is still a relatively new release, probably a week or so old at this point, but the room is only about a quarter full.

 _It's not because it's a bad movie… I remember this movie being really good back in my original time. Oh well, I guess it's just time to enjoy the movie now._

The lights in the room dimm after a few minutes of ads, and the trailers start. The movies shown in the ads range from comical to horror to downright cringey. The trailers for horror movies are a little… more than I'd like. But thankfully whenever I jump due to a well time jumpscare, Ruby holds my hand. It was nice. There were some awkward moments when both of us reached for popcorn at the same time and our hands touched, followed by quick apologies, removal of hands, and flushed faces. The movie started and all of the non-movie sound quickly died in the theater, replaced by surround sound audio.

The movie was as good as I remembered it; although, truth be told, I was watching Ruby more than I was watching the movie. The look on her face when something exciting happened was priceless. She'd look at me with wide eyes and a huge goofy smile and mouth to me. " _That's what happened in the book"_ or sometimes a furrowed brow and accompanied mouthing of " _The book did that better."_

Throughout the movie, I tried to psych myself up to kiss Ruby. The urge had steadily grown to kiss her as the movie had gone on. There was one point where Ruby and I made eye contact. She leaned forward towards me. My nerves skyrocketed, as I thought that would be the time in which I kissed the girl of my dreams. But it turned out she was just leaning towards her straw with her head because she didn't want to let go of my hand. I can't help the feeling of disappointment that falls into my gut.

The movie in and of itself was about two and a half hours, even though it felt like less than that. Time seems to be weird when I'm around Ruby: Sometimes it's a blur that I can't keep up with; sometimes it just stands still. Upon exiting the theater, the almost dull afternoon sun we had become accustomed to on the way to the movies was replaced by darkness.

The nighttime sky accentuating a feature of Ruby that the sun just hadn't. In the darker light, she had a different sort of beauty. A more mysterious looking, almost elegant type of beauty, even though she was far from elegant. The way the light of the full moon shone down on her made it harder for me to resist to kiss her then and there.

"Hey, Weiss? I had a lot of fun tonight. You did a great job planning this date," Ruby says. She once again laces her fingers with mine as we walk. It's such a simple gesture, and yet it makes me a nervous wreck. Stuttering, blushing, confusion. All symptoms of Ruby. And I had to have more.

"Thank you, Ruby. I'm glad you enjoyed it. I had a lot of fun myself," I say. The awkwardness that fills the air between us becomes almost tangible as we stride further into the night. A cool, refreshing breeze blew through the town.

Wandering around, we eventually come to a park. Dimly lit due to street lamps, it was a nice evening walk for us. Looking around, I see quite a few other couples sitting on benches along the path. Some laughing, some just smiling, some showing an incredibly indecent amount of PDA, and some just simply enjoying each others' company. Ruby seems to tense up at the sight, probably nervous from everything that's happening around us. Honestly, seeing all of this PDA makes me a bit nervous as well. But then again, it feels pretty nice holding Ruby's hand here. It's like we're an actual couple. Likewise, we eventually find our way to a somewhat secluded and private park bench, still hand in hand.

As we walked, I wasn't sure what to say. We'd both said what we wanted about the movie, we both understood that the park was a romantic place, and therein laid the problem. Would we sit down and cuddle? Kiss? My palm felt sweaty and I'm sure Ruby could feel it too. The air was suddenly slightly awkward between us and I didn't like that one bit.

 _Dammit, I need to ask her out again. I can't just let this be a one and done type of thing. But my nerves, they're making my heart beat so fast. I feel like I'm about to die. No, Weiss. You're not going to die right now, but if you don't do this, you will die because you let Ruby slip through your fingers again. Come on, you've got this!_

With the small pep talk done and a newfound surge of courage, I do it. "I really did have a great time tonight, Ruby. I… I want to go on another date with you… If that's okay." My voice is noticeably nervous. A simple, gentle squeeze of my hand is enough to make me feel somewhat normal again.

"I'd love that, Weiss." She looks over at me, her silver eyes shining in the moonlight beautifully. She smiles at me, with a look of care I haven't even seen her look at Crescent Rose with.

"You're beautiful, Ruby," I say.

"You are too, Weiss. You're one of the most beautiful girls I've ever known," she says, her cheeks flashing crimson.

A small lock of hair falls down into in front of her eyes. My hand instinctively reaches up towards it and brushes it out of her face. Not knowing what to do next, my hand decides to cup her chin. Nervously awaiting what my body's natural desire is next, I give in. I lean forward, eyes closing. My breath hitches, my heartbeat quickens, and my mind goes through a million different ways this could play out. But all of those possible futures are immediately pushed out of my mind as the one I most wanted to happen becomes reality.

A feeling of somewhat plump lips on mine fills me with a sense of something I haven't felt in a long time: joy. And with that, I know that this isn't a one and done type of thing. That this isn't just something that I feel. That she feels this way too. And that this will be my future.

I went to the past, and yet... I yearn for the future...

A future with her.


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's Note: Here it is! I hope you enjoy this next chapter! This is the last one that I wrote before I started posting, so now it's all new stuff since Chapter 1 went up. I hope you've enjoyed it so far and continue to enjoy it.**

The kiss was simple. It wasn't anything super out there. And it certainly wasn't the 'kiss between two lovers in the rain' type of kiss one might see in the movies. It was simple. It was short. It was chaste. And yet, it was the most intense feeling I've felt in a long time.

After a few seconds, I lean back, eyes half-lidded and mind hazy. And then it hits me. _Kiss. I just kissed Ruby Rose. And I want more. But what if she doesn't? What if she didn't in the first place?_

I can feel my face flush. I back up a few inches. My heart pounds, my palms are clammy, and my breathing is somewhat shaky. I'm still in shock that I did that.

"S-sorry. It just felt right, and… I'm sorry if that was too much. I-" I'm cut off by Ruby's finger on my mouth. A shy smile adorns her face that has been tinted a slight crimson. I blush at the sight.

"Shhhhh. It's okay," she says. She removes her finger from in front of my mouth. My eyes look away. There's a part of me that feels ashamed for doubting Ruby.

"Are you-" and once again, I'm cut off. But not by a finger but by another set of lips to mine.

 _Oh, Dust she's kissing me. I didn't start this one. She did. And why am I just sitting here not kissing her back?_

The sudden shock of Ruby's soft lips on mine wears away. I relax and sink into the kiss. Arms wrap around my waist and pull me tight. My arms instinctively reach up and rest on Ruby's shoulders. She feels warm, even with the late evening chill. What feels like forever later, Ruby and I separate our lips. We both gasp for air. I immediately miss how close Ruby was to me, and I have to keep myself under control so that I don't immediately pull her to me again.

"Ummmmm…" Ruby starts hesitantly. She looks kind of lost, or at least unsure of what to say next.

"Yeah…" I say in response. We both look at each other and smile bashfully.

"That was… that was nice," Ruby says, blushing; however, her smile is as plain as day.

 _Clearly she's happy about kissing me. And I'm over the moon with kissing her. This is one of the best days of my life! That was my first kiss. And my second. And I'm pretty sure it was hers too._

"Yeah, it was," I say, still smiling like a goof. "That was really nice." My heart beat has surged into a cacophony of wild drum beats. Everywhere Ruby touched me is still tingling as if her fingers were electric. A rush of energy flows through me, and it takes all that I have to not start jumping for joy.

"Do you…" Ruby starts, looking at me, meeting my eyes with hers. But then she hesitates. "Nevermind," she mumbles, a blush on her face.

"Wait, what is it, Ruby?" I ask, a tone of concern in my voice.

 _She can tell me anything. I won't judge her ever. I want to be able to make her know that._

"Well, I was wondering if… you… Uhhh…" She starts fidgeting in her seat nervously, a deep blush adorns her face.

"You can ask me. I won't judge you." I put my hand on her shoulder to comfort her. Her nervous movements decrease in frequency after I do. Ruby takes a deep breath before looking at me with that same crimson tint as before.

"Do you want to do it again?" Her voice quivers while she asks this, showing just how nervous she is. My heart skips a beat.

"I do," I say warmly. Ruby smiles wide, her eyes shining with excitement.

"R-really? Oh, okay! Yay! So um, how do you want to do this?" She asks, awkwardly.

 _I didn't think about that. Before, it was so natural. I don't know how just… going for it will work. Oh well, it'll be fine. I hope._

"I'm not sure… I think we just… go for it," I say with some hesitation. I nervously scoot next to her and put my arm around her waist and pull her. My right arm snakes around her head and pulls her closer until our lips touch.. All I feel is fireworks as the surroundings fade away and my entire being focuses on the girl I'm kissing. Her hands wrap around me once again as we keep the connection between us. As the kiss draws itself out, I feel heat starting to pool between my legs. While not an unfamiliar feeling, it still catches me off guard as I wasn't expecting to get… Well, turned on just by a slightly less than chaste kiss.

And in this moment, my imagination takes a twisted turn. With my eyes closed, my mind is free to throw up whatever images it wants to. And right now, all I want is Ruby. _All_ of Ruby. These images cascading into my mind don't help with the growing… feeling that has taken over most of my senses.

I reign in my feral instincts to absolutely devour Ruby and hold back in the kiss. _I guess years of wanting someone can really do something to you._

Before either of us could take the kiss any further again, a loud ringing sounds from Ruby's small handbag. We break from the kiss, our faces flushed and our breathing heavy. Ruby rummages through her bag for a few seconds before pulling out her Scroll and answering the call.

"Hello?" She answers "Oh hi, Yang!" Ruby pauses as Yang talks to her from the other side. "Y-yes, we're still on our date!" Ruby stutters. Another pause. Ruby leans away from me and says in a hushed tone, "Well, I'm on my phone during a date because you called me!"

 _Way to ruin the mood, Yang._

"We're in the park, Yang. That's where we are." Ruby says, her tone showing slight ticks of annoyance. Her responses give me a pretty clear understanding to what Yang is saying from the other side of the phone call. "Yes, it is the park with all of the couples making out. No, we didn't know that when we came here." Ruby starts blushing heavily. "N-No, we weren't making out!" she almost yells into the phone and stands up off the bench. I join her standing up, and we begin walking back towards the academy.

 _Yet._

"U-um… We… Uh… Bye, Yang!" Ruby hangs up the call quickly and looks back at me. Then down at the ground.

 _I can use this. Tease her a little bit maybe. That'll be fun._

"So… what was that about?" I ask nonchalantly, my hands holding onto each other behind my back, my voice light.

"Well, you see. That was Yang, probably as you heard when I said 'Hi, Yang' and 'Bye, Yang'. But well, she asked if we were still on our date. And then she asked where we were. And then when I told her the park, she asked if it was the one that all of the couples were… making out in. But then I told her that we didn't know that beforehand. And then she asked if… If uh…. She asked if we were making out. And I told her no, because we weren't, right? And then I hung up. Yep. That's what happened." She smiles a fake smile and laughs nervously..

"Hmmm… I seem to recall hearing you fluster a little bit there at the end. Care to enlighten me?" I tilt my head towards her and smile.

"It was, uh… It was n-nothing!" Ruby stutters and blushes.

 _She's so cute when she gets embarrassed like this. And that's good because she's been getting embarrassed a lot recently._

"Oh? Nothing, huh? Will Yang say the same thing if I ask her?" I tease, holding my chin with my hand and pretending to think. It's fun to tease her sometimes.

Ruby gasps. "You wouldn't."

I smirk at her. "Try me." Ruby pouts for a little bit, refusing to make eye contact with me, despite my attempts to do so. Unsure of what to do next, I decide to change the subject.

 _Is she mad at me? I don't want her to be mad at me. That would make things difficult. What if she is? What will I do? What CAN I do? Should I probe to see? I think so..._

"So did you like our date?" I ask her, looking at her through the corner of my eye. I can't help but sound hopeful. Eventually, Ruby turns her head to me and hesitantly makes eye contact with me again. When she does, she smiles again.

 _I guess she was only kidding about being angry. That's good to know that I didn't actually make her mad at me._

"Yeah, it was fun. I really enjoyed it. The movie was really cool. And the… the k-kiss was better…" Ruby blushes and smiles shyly. Without looking, I try to sneak my hand down and grab hers with it. My fingers make contact with the side of her hand, and it flinches away briefly before grabbing it quickly. Surprisingly quickly. I look over to her, and a dumb smile adorns her face as she holds my hand.

"I agree. It definitely was a fun date. And a fun kiss," I say, my voice bell-like. I think I made it clear that I had a good time. Just then, a chill breeze drifts through the air. Ruby shivers and wraps herself around my arm.

"Wh-what are you doing?" I ask, a little thrown off from the gesture. That, and the proximity to Ruby still makes me nervous, even if it also makes me very happy

"What do you mean?" She asks innocently. Then, she looks down and sees that my arm is basically wearing her. She steps back with a surprised look on her face. "O-oh, that. This. Yeah. Ummm… Well, I saw it on an anime one time. And like, if two people were dating or something like that, usually the girl would grab the arm of the guy she was with. And I thought it looked cute. So I guess I just… did it? I'm sorry, I won't do it again if it bothers you." Ruby turns her face away, her tone dejected.

 _No! You made her sad! You fool! What do I do? How can I fix this? I don't know… oh! Wait! Reassure her! Yes, that's it!_

"No, no! That wasn't… I didn't… I didn't mean it that way. It was just… it caught me off guard, that's all. Here, you can do it." I extend my arm towards Ruby, who reaches out cautiously before grabbing on. We walk in content silence until we get back to Beacon, the autumnal night just the right temperature for comfort. The stars that dot the nighttime sky are beautiful, but not nearly as beautiful as the one that's holding onto my arm.

Getting back to Beacon, we walk back towards our dorm. Once we step onto the grounds, Ruby detaches herself from my arm and instead grabs my hand with her own. At this time of night, the halls are basically empty, and the few people that are in them don't seem to mind Ruby and I walking through, hand in hand. Truth be told, I feel nervous walking around like that, but with the lack of people, I feel brave enough to walk with Ruby's hand intertwined with my own. As we approach the dorm room itself, I stop right before the door. I turn Ruby so that we're making eye contact.

"I had a lot of fun tonight, Ruby." I smile. She smiles back.

"I had fun too. The most fun I've had in a while, actually." She shrugs tensely. She looks nervous. Understandable because I am too. We both seem to understand the call of the moment because at the same time, we lean in, and our lips meet. It lasts seconds, but it holds so many emotions. Happiness, nervousness, contentment, and on my part, love.

We break from the kiss, and both of us have blushes on our faces. Turning, I open the door and walk in.

"Oh my gosh, you're back! Ruby! You never answered the last question of mine!" Yang yells.

 _Wow, straight to the point. I don't even have an opportunity to ask her. She's doing it for me. Now Ruby can't get mad at me for asking. Thanks, Yang. But I guess she's going to want as many details as possible, which might be bad. What if she asks what we did after the movie? I don't know how to answer that!_

"What question was that, Yang? I… forgot! Yeah, I forgot. I don't remember any question. Nothing happened!" Ruby stutters and starts walking towards her closet, I'm assuming to get a change of clothes to sleep in tonight.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about. Here, let me ask it again," Yang says, her confidence making her bolster a large smirk. I smile to myself and walk over to the sink and get a glass of water. My curiosity is definitely piqued. _At least I'll get to know what that was before. And I didn't even have to ask! Yang just did it for me!_

"Please don't, Yang." Ruby whines in an almost begging tone. I start drinking the water that I got for myself. I lean against the door inconspicuously and listen in to try and find out exactly what it is that was said

"Too late, Rubes. Did. You. And. Weiss. Kiss?" A low whine of distress escapes me and I spit the water into the sink, some of it splattering onto the mirror in front. I start choking and coughing on the water that's still in my throat.

"Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaang!" Ruby yells before getting clothes and running towards the bathroom, her face beet red. Finally done coughing, I step out of the way before I get run over. I use the time that Ruby is away to avoid eye contact and conversation with Yang. My face blushes any time I think of Ruby and that Yang was a lot more intuitive than I thought. Ruby spends all of a minute in the bathroom getting changed into her pyjamas before coming out of the door and using her semblance to get up on her bed. She pulls the blankets over herself, removing her figure from view. Blake, sitting on her own bed, seems unfazed by the rush of air that is Ruby using her semblance, and continues reading her book.

"Goodnight, Ruby~!" Yang calls up to her. She then looks at me and smiles. "You two totally kissed." I blush and grab clothes to change into as well. I step into the bathroom, saying nothing. I quickly change and walk to my bed, not making eye contact or saying anything to Yang. I crawl into bed and pull the blankets up over my face. "Yep. I knew it. Goodnight, Weiss. And good job tonight. I'm proud of you." I can imagine the smirk on her face as she says that.

"Goodnight, Yang," I mumble from under the covers.

 _Today went well. I'm happy with everything that went on today. Things went a bit better than I expected, what with the kiss and all…_ I can't help but smile to myself. _This has been one of the best days of my life. Ruby makes me so happy. And my future holds more of her. Something to look forward to._


	11. Chapter 11

**Author's Note: Here it is, everyone! I'm looking forward to seeing what you guys think of this chapter! And I realized that I haven't been thanking my Beta Reader lately, so a huge special mega shout-out to Gorsouul! This story would be a lot different without your input. Thank you!**

The next day at breakfast, Ruby and I's date is the talk of the table with our friends.

"So they get back to the dorm, and I ask them if they kissed, and both Ruby and Weiss just start blushing like crazy," Yang says cheerfully in between forkfuls of waffle.

"No way! You guys kissed last night?!" Nora shouts out loud. A good number of students look over from their seats towards our group. Ruby and I make eye contact with each other and blush before quickly looking away quickly. I start to blush heavily from embarrassment. I'm still not used to romance. Despite my years of living before going back, I've never been in a relationship. I've only loved Ruby...

"That's lovely. I'm so happy for you two." Pyrrha smiles and glances wistfully towards Jaune, who at this point is staring down at his food, moving it slightly with his fork unenthusiastically.

"Ahahahaha… Yeah, well… um… cool… Well, I gotta run. I'll see you guys in time for class or whatever," Ruby stutters. She gets up with her tray and puts it away before walking away in a hurry. Her face shows distress. Worried, I get up soon after and follow her.

"I'm gonna go too… After her…" As I leave, I can hear Nora talking to the other people at the table.

"I wonder what's with them."

I shrug the comment off and walk in the direction I saw Ruby walking in. I start to get more concerned about Ruby as I walk after her. The direction she took leads right to the dorm, and after a while of not seeing anything of her as I walked, I decide to check in the dorm room.

 _There's more of a chance for her to be in here than anywhere further down the hall._ I open the door and walk in, looking around for Ruby. Sure enough, she's in here sitting on her bed, clutching her dog face pillow close to her chest. A wave of relief washes over me as I find her, although I'm slightly worried about the upcoming conversation.

"Ruby, what's wrong? Why'd you get up and walk away like that?" I ask, not in a harsh and questioning tone, but more of a light-hearted and curious one.

"I… I got nervous," she hesitates before continuing. "And kind of embarrassed."

My face falls. _Is she embarrassed about me? About kissing me? Did I do something to make her upset and embarrassed?_

She must have noticed my expression, because no less than a second later, she says in a panicked voice, "Oh, not because of you! You didn't do anything bad!"

I sigh in relief and walk up next to her bed and look up at her from ground level.

"Then what is it, if you don't mind me asking?"

She sighs in response and bites her bottom lip. A few deep breaths and I assume some mental psyching up later, she responds. "I was nervous because I thought my first kiss would be more… personal. That I'd be able to have the first relationship with someone I like be more private, but everyone is out there talking about us! It's just…" She stops her rambling, running through everything that she has just said. Her face goes red before she starts rambling again. "W-wait, did I say relationship? I-I'm sorry. I know that's not the case. It was just kind of wishful thinking I guess. I understand if that's not what you want, but I guess it just kind of slipped out."

I raise my hand, and she stops. _She's so cute when she rambles. But it's easy to see where she's coming from. I want it to be more private as well, but privacy isn't easy to come by when you're an heiress… but I can try my best to make it as good for Ruby as I can._

"Well, you just said that it was wishful thinking, right? Does that mean that you WANT to be in a relationship with me?" I question, unable to hide the giddy smile on my face. Ruby nods shyly, squeezing the pillow closer to her, her face flaming red. She looks up at me, and our eyes meet. "Well, I want that as well." Her eyes light up as what I just said hits her and she understands. "So, Ruby Rose. Would you like to be my girlfriend?"

Ruby giggles and nods from behind her pillow. "Yes, Weiss. Yes I do." She jumps down from the bed towards me. Panic starts to fly through my head. Not knowing what else to do, I try to catch her. Try being the most important word.

She falls on me, and my knees buckle under the surprise addition of weight, even how little Ruby actually is. I collapse on the floor, and she tumbles down with me. We both make eye contact and break out laughing. While it did hurt quite a bit, the happiness I feel greatly outweighs that pain.

"Thank you for trying to catch me, Weiss" Ruby says in between fits of laughter. She slides her arms around me and pulls me close to her in an embrace.

 _This here is the start of our journey together, Ruby. I hope you're as happy as I am._

"Hey Weiss?" Ruby asks from on top of me. The closeness of Ruby to me right now makes it hard to concentrate, but I try my best to listen to what she has to say.

"Yes, Ruby?" I lean back and look Ruby in the eyes, curious as to what she's going to say.

"So… we're like… girlfriends now, right? What do we do? Like, I know that dates and stuff, but like are there any rules for when it comes to like, k-kissing? Or other stuff?" I have to think for a bit.

 _That's a great question… What are the boundaries? What are the rules? How can we know? I don't know…_ My head starts to swirl from the barrage of questions that I start asking myself. Unsure of what to say or how to say it, I just start talking, hoping something good comes out of it.

"I don't think that can be answered so quickly. This is new for me, and I think it's new for you, right?" I ask. Ruby nods her head, looking away embarrassed and blushing. "Well, I think we just need to learn from what happens…" Ruby nods in agreement. "But I think the first thing that should be done is you getting off of me," I jest.

"Oh! Sorry!" Ruby gets up off of me and helps me stand up as well. I laugh to myself, dust myself off and look at Ruby. "Well, we had better get going again. Don't want to miss our classes now, do we?"

Ruby groans overdramatically. "You and your classes." I can see a small smile at the edge of her lips as she says this, and I extend my hand towards her.

"Shall we go?" Ruby grabs my hand quickly and smiles. She checks her scroll and grimaces. She shows me the time: 9:20. Ten minutes before our class starts. I return the expression and pull her along forward.

"Yeah, let's go." We end up running through the halls across the school and pushing ourselves into the classroom right before the bell rings. Normally, we'd be sitting up front with both Blake and Yang, but seeing as we were almost late for the class, all of those seats are full. We instead elect to take two of the seats in the empty back row. I wave to Yang and Blake as a sort of apology for not sitting with them.

Professor Port starts out his lecture, like always, with a story about how absolutely 'amazing' he was growing up. _Boring. I've already heard this story before. He gets the Ursa and brings it back to his town. There's got to be something that I can do to alleviate this boredom._

I look over to Ruby to see what she's doing. What I see as I turn to look doesn't surprise me in the slightest. On the desk in front of Ruby is a sheet of notebook paper. One would think that the paper would have notes on it, but that's not the case. A few small doodles adorn the paper, and adding to the number of doodles seems to be taking up most of her attention. After about 30 seconds of watching her, an idea pops into my head.

 _It's about time that I start being a lot more fun for Ruby. More than just going out to have fun. There needs to be a steady influx of fun. I hope she enjoys what I have in mind. I'm excited._

I get out a sheet of paper myself and nudge Ruby's shoulder. She visibly jumps, snapped into reality from the heavy focus she had on doodling.

"What?" She whispers to me. I raise a finger in front of my mouth signaling her to be quiet. I then scribble " _Do you want to have a doodling contest?_ " onto the paper in front of me. I slowly slide the paper over towards her. She takes the paper and reads it. She then looks at me with a smile on her face and nods vigorously. I smile in response and get more paper out. She does the same.

" _Okay, so you choose what we're doing first."_ I write onto the paper. She thinks for a second before writing down something. On the paper reads a single word: Puppy. I smile and nod.

"Okay, so we have three minutes. One… Two… Three… Go…" I whisper to her. I immediately get to work, doodling. The form of a dog ends up taking shape after a minute. The doodle is coming along nicely; the form is solidly there, and now it's just detail work. At around 3 minutes of drawing, I finish my doodle and nudge Ruby. I proudly put my puppy in view of Ruby. Proudly, that is, until Ruby puts her drawing in front of me. The doodle, while only taking three minutes, is an incredibly detailed picture of Zwei. Of course, I'm not supposed to know who Zwei is. If I were to compare her drawing of Zwei to my puppy drawing, my drawing would be the one that a parent hangs on a fridge when their child brings it home from third grade art class, whereas hers would be an upper level collegiate art student's project. Her drawing absolutely blows me away. When comparing her drawing to mine, it looks like my dog was born with a few… defects. It becomes hard for me to not just grab the picture and star fangirling over the corgi.

It seems that Ruby is able to change her drawing style when she wants to, as this beautiful work of art is completely different from some of the other doodles I've seen; even the ones that I saw earlier today. And definitely different of her quick blotchy sketch of Professor Port on the first day of classes. In all of my years before, back then, of knowing Ruby, I never saw this artistic side of Ruby.

 _I guess even when you've known someone for 14 years of your life, there's still a lot more that you can learn about them. It's strange. I'm thrown off by this new revelation, but I feel happy about it at the same time. It's amazing when you can learn something you didn't know about a person you love._

"Weiss?" Ruby whispers, looking at me. I shake my head, not realizing that I was staring at her picture for so long. "Are you okay?"

"Oh, yeah. It's just… That's really good. Like… wow. Just… wow." I whisper, still in awe of how great the drawing is. "The dog is also really cute."

"Thanks!" Ruby smiles. "It's my dog." I take this opportunity to do the fangirling that I tried to avoid earlier. I grab the picture and study it even more profusely.

"It's your dog?" I ask with as best of feigned enthusiasm as I could muster. I am enthusiastic, don't get me wrong. It's just that I already knew about Zwei. "What's his name?" _You know his name, dummy. I know I do, but I'm not supposed to._

"His name is Zwei. Isn't he cute?" I simply nod in response and then look back at the drawing.

 _I guess there's still a lot that I don't know about her. And I can't wait to learn more about her._

"Yeah, he is cute. Will I ever get to meet him?" I ask, still whispering, and smiling. I look at Ruby to find her staring at me.

She thinks to herself for a little bit before she speaks. "I'm not really sure. I think if you ever visit while I'm back in Patch, you might get to see him." She smiles at me again and blushes. My heart melts at the sight of it.

 _It's still so strange that she and I are… together. It's unreal. It's like I'm in a dream. A dream that I never want to wake up from. She wants us to be together whenever I visit._

The rest of the class is filled with more doodling. Ruby decides that contests just aren't as fun as normal doodling, and with my competitive streak, I'm inclined to agree. The puppy doodle absolutely destroyed any hope of winning against her in doodling ever again. But that's fine. It was fun, and that was my goal.

The class ends, and Ruby and I walk out together. We start heading back to the dorm, talking on the way.

"So what you said about me visiting you on Patch. You mean that?" I ask, giving Ruby a sidelong glance as we walk. I try to not sound overly excited, but it's hard to contain my joy.

"Of course! Any of my friends are welcome to come to my house! Dad told me so before I came here. And now since you're… more than just a friend…" I can feel myself blush. I look at her, and she's blushing as well. She's not making eye contact with me, however. She's looking straight forward and smiling. "Since you're more than just a friend now… you're like, extra welcome."

 _I can't wait to visit Patch again. The last time that I did back in my reality, Taiyang was so nice to me. I just hope he's as nice this time… Because now I'm dating his daughter..._

I laugh to myself. "You're such a dolt sometimes, you know that?" She looks at me for the first time since we left class and smiles back.

"Yep!" Her smile widens, and she looks back the way we have been traveling. We're almost back to the dorm. Right as we runs the corner to the hallway that takes us directly to our room, I can feel my Scroll start to vibrate.

"Hey, Ruby? You can go on ahead. Someone is calling me. I'll be right there, okay?" I ask, fishing my hand into the pocket in my jacket that I keep my Scroll. Ruby nods and makes her way to the room by herself. I get my Scroll and take it out, looking at who is calling me. My heart starts beating fast as I see who it is.

Scrawled across the screen in bold letters is one word: " **Father** ".


	12. Chapter 12

**Author's Note: Here's chapter 12! Once again, thanks to Gorsouul for everything! No chapter next week, as here in America, it's Thanksgiving, and I don't wanna post. Also, it'll give me some more time to work ahead. Love you all! Enjoy!**

I sigh to myself and answer the call. "Hello?" I ask into my Scroll, not exactly thrilled to be talking to my father. I'm sure that my tone shows it. Before, back in my old time, my father was a massive thorn in my side until I finally told him off. One could say that I'm more confident because of that happening. Normally, I'd be scared to talk to him like that, but his intimidation won't work on me this time.

" _Weiss, it's been a while since we've talked,_ " Father's voice can be heard from the other side of the line. I roll my eyes.

"I'm sorry, Father. I've been busy with my studies. You know how important those are." I can't help but lace the word 'father' with a bit of venom.

" _That's good that you're focused on your studies, Weiss; although, I can't help but wonder if that's really the case all the time..."_ Father trails off.

"What do you mean?" I ask, somewhat confused. _Does he think he has some sort of angle on me? I'm not scared of him. If he thinks I'm just going to sit back and be the blind, obedient, perfect little daughter that can't say anything but 'yes father's, then he's sorely mistaken._

 _"I'll be sending you an article after this call ends. And I want you to think about if your studies are really your main priority."_ Father's tone is aggressive, and it seems that it has hints of disappointment in it.

Still confused about what's going on, I hesitantly say, "Okay…?" I look around the hall while thinking to myself. _What could it be? I haven't done anything, I don't think. What could he be referring to? And why isn't he just saying it? I hate that he does this sometimes; beating around the bush instead of just saying what he really wants._

" _Yes. Well, it was… an adequate experience talking to you again, Weiss. I hope you complete your studies well. And remember to focus on your studies. Nothing. More. And remember: I got you into Beacon against my better judgement. Don't think I can't make you come home._ And as soon as he says that, the dial tone that signifies the end of the call meets my ear. A few seconds later, my Scroll flashes and another dial tone. I open the message from my father only to almost drop my Scroll.

Heiress Weiss Schnee seen leaving theater in downtown Vale holding hands with an unknown girl! Is this a new lover, perhaps?

My jaw drops as I read the title. At the very beginning of the article, there are a few pictures of us exiting the theater and laughing. A few more pictures are dotted throughout the article, mostly of us walking together and laughing. A few pictures show us holding hands as we walk. I scan the article quickly, and from what I read, the main points being brought up are " _Does miss Schnee have a girlfriend?_ ", " _Who is this beautiful young lady?_ ", and " _What will her father think about this?_ ". All valid questions. I open the door and quickly move over to my bed to sit down.

I can feel my palms start to sweat a little bit. My heart rate accelerates. A dull pain starts throbbing in the back of my head.

 _I've been used to this my entire life. It's just another nuisance to me. But Ruby. She didn't grow up with this. Back in my own past reality, she didn't get used to the Paparazzi until at least four years after we had all graduated Beacon. How is she going to react? And how could I be so naïve? Sure I'm not a huge popular celebrity, but I'm still the heiress to the SDC. I should have known that something like this would garner attention. Not only did it just expose that we went out and were holding hands, but it also means the media knows both of our… preferences. That's a dangerous game for Ruby to be in without any knowledge of how the media can work. I don't even know that much about how they work. I'm afraid for her._

My nervousness catches the eye of Ruby who, at the time that I came into the room, was sitting at her desk, probably pretending to work on homework when I came in. The otherwise cute little deception unfortunately doesn't cause me to smile for once. She looks at me to meet my eyes, but I look away as soon as eye contact is made. She walks over to me quickly and sits on my bed next to me.

"Weiss, what's wrong? Is everything okay?"She sounds worried. She probably looks worried too, but at the moment, I'm staring into space. I simply hold up my Scroll in response to her questions. She takes it and starts reading through it. A minute of silence passes as Ruby looks through the article. The shame that I feel makes it hard for me to look her in eyes. I end up staring at the wall for the entire time, wrapping my arms around myself to keep myself from shaking. "Oh…" is all she says.

"I'm sorry, Ruby. I was stupid and forgot about how they take those kinds of pictures. And that they're everywhere, always looking for a good story." Tears start to form in my eyes as my mind starts racing to all of the possible outcomes, most of them involving Ruby not being able to live her life and coming to despise me for it. "I didn't mean for this to happen…" I slowly look up to Ruby, and our eyes meet. I gulp as I look into those deep silver eyes. "Maybe it's best if-" I'm cut off by a pair of lips on mine. Although surprised, my body immediately relaxes into the kiss and my eyes flutter closed. And then the lips are gone. I open my eyes to see Ruby's smiling face.

"Don't worry about it, okay? You didn't do anything. You took me out for an amazing night, and one thing that you have no control of slipped your mind. I don't blame you for that." A wave of relief washes over me, and I pull her into a hug. She returns the gesture almost immediately. The fact that she's so quick to comfort me is just another reason why I am, without a doubt, in love with this woman. It brings a smile to my face knowing that she's okay with the trouble of the media when it comes to me.

"Thank you, Ruby," I say, ending the hug. I lean back and make eye contact with her. Her eyes are beautiful.

"You're welcome, Weiss!" She smiles. I look into her eyes again, and an overwhelming urge to kiss her creeps into my mind. Not wanting to resist this urge, I lean forward and push my lips onto Ruby's. She leans into me almost as soon as our lips make contact. I lean back into her and deepen the kiss. Ruby sighs into my mouth and falls backward onto my bed. I fall on top of her, shifting my weight so that it doesn't hurt her. A few seconds of lighter kissing pass before I feel a vibration from on the bed. Ruby pulls back and reaches underneath her back to pull out my Scroll. Sighing, I take it from her and look at the screen: **One unread message from: FATHER.** I look at Ruby, concerned, but say nothing.

I open the message and read it. **So, Weiss. What do you think? After reading that article, are you really sure that you're focusing on your studies?**

I scoff and type a quick reply, **I am focusing on my studies, Father. But there are things that are more important things than that, even though you don't think so. This time here at Beacon, it's for me to do more than study.** Ruby stays silent the entire time that I type the response. After I send the message, I put my Scroll on Do Not Disturb so that I don't get any unwelcome interruptions again.

 _I want to say more than just that, but I don't think now is the time. With that news in the article, he's probably on thin ice with his temper anyway. And what I said won't help, but I don't want to push it too far. It's easy to get him angry. And he does stupid things when he's angry._

"Weiss, are you okay?" Ruby asks. As she asks, I can feel my face relax from the scowl that I didn't realize I held. I shake my head slightly to get those thoughts out of my head.

"Yeah, I'm okay. I'm sorry, Ruby." I smile to try and reassure her that I am, in fact, okay; however, judging from the look she gives me, she doesn't buy it.

"Hmmm… Okay. Who was that text from? Oh, and the call? And where'd you get the article from? Oh, wait. No, I'm being intrusive. You don't have to answer those. Sorry!" Ruby rambles. She looks away, a shade of red tinting her cheeks. I can't help but laugh at how cute she is.

"No, Ruby. It's okay. All of them were from my father. I'm sure he's not thrilled about that public image. I couldn't care less when it came to myself. It's you that I was worried about. But you told me earlier that you're fine with it, so I guess I'm a bit less worried about it. Well, not fine, but that you understand."

Ruby nods with understanding. "What did your dad say?" Ruby asks curiously.

"Well, he was asking if I was keeping with my studies, and then I told him I was. So he sent me that article, trying to imply that I wasn't because I was with you. So I told him that I was still on top of my studies, but that some things are more important than studying." When I say the last part of that sentence, I can't help but blush.

"Awwwwww, Weiss! That's so cute!" Ruby says happily. She wraps her arms around my neck and pulls me down to her again. She plants her lips on my own. I kiss her back, trying to keep some of my inner desire in check. Her hands move to my back, and she pulls me down so that our bodies are flush. My desire grows with each passing second, but I need to keep myself in check. This is not the time for any… of that. I gently bite her bottom lip, trying to channel the desire into something a bit less intense than other things that I want to do. But even if I did do what I wanted, I'm probably too inexperienced to do it well. I might end up hurting her… Nevertheless, I'm nervous, but excited at the same time.

"Weiss…" she moans. This spurns me on a bit more than I realized it would have as my kisses become more and more hungry, especially with the feeling of Ruby's body pushed up against mine. Ruby quickly reciprocates for a few seconds.

Just as things are about to get a bit more heated, the doorknob wiggles. I push myself off of Ruby quickly and sit up. I pull her to sit up next to me just in time as Yang and Blake walk into the room. Their conversation, whatever it was, stops as they enter and see us on the bed together.

"What's going on here?" Yang asks, raising an eyebrow.

 _Oh no. Gotta think of something…_

"W-we were just talking, right Ruby?"I look to Ruby and smile widely. The smile being an over-exaggeration. My heart is beating rapidly. I can't look at Yang out of embarrassment, and I'm sure she knows it.

 _We almost just got caught. Yang almost caught me making out with her sister. I need to… Well, I need to cool down with what's happening._

"R-right… just talking…Yeah! That's what we were doing!" Ruby chuckles awkwardly, looking from between Yang and I.

Yang smirks. "Okay, whatever you say. Just talking. Yep…" an awkward silence permeates the room before she speaks back up again. "Anyway, Blake and I are just dropping our stuff off before we head to the gym and work out for a bit. Do either of you want to join us?" Yang walks across the room to her desk and sets her bag down. Blake sets her stuff down on her bed and walks to the closet. She comes back out with two duffel bags and hands one to Yang.

"No thanks. I'm gonna work with Weiss on some homework that I need help with." Ruby lies through her teeth. And while lying isn't a great thing to do, even when I just did it myself, this one kind of impresses me. Before whenever we said we were talking, she was awkward, reserved, and fidgety. This time, she seems confident. No cracks, hesitations, or nervousness in her voice. Just confident.

"Yeah, what she said. I'm helping her." I feign enthusiasm to mask my confusion.

 _How can Ruby go from struggling to lie to confident in her lies in that short of a time? I need to ask her later…_

"Okay, well, whatever you guys say. Blake and I are headed to the gym to work out some more. Come if you want," Yang waves behind her as she exits the doorway. Blake walks up to Ruby and I and leans her head so that it's between both Ruby's head and my own.

"I know that you weren't just talking," Blake says before standing up and walking out of the dorm, but not before flashing a sly smirk in our direction.

 _That's right… She's a faunus, and they have better hearing than most others. Yet another thing that I'm not supposed to know, as Blake hasn't taken her bow off yet… Something to consider later._

"How does she know…?" Ruby trails off, her face slightly contorted in confusion.

"I have no idea…" I start, but then remember what I was so surprised about: Ruby and her lying. "But I do want to know what that earlier was about."

"What earlier? A lot of things happened earlier, it's hard to remember what you're talking about." Ruby explains, her hand resting on the back of her neck and a blush on her face.

"You lied, Ruby. Really well. But before, you didn't lie very well. What happened?" I ask, looking at Ruby with a sideways glance.

"What do you mean earlier? I only lied once," Ruby shakes her head in confusion.

"But you lied that we were just talking, and then that you needed my help on something. That's two," I reason. It makes no sense to me.

"Oh, no. The first one was a lie. The second one about needing your help is the truth. I was gonna ask you for help after they left," Ruby explains. Suddenly, it makes sense now. She didn't need to lie, but she did when it came to what happened.

"Oh… Oh, okay. So what do you need help with, exactly?" I ask, expecting her to bring up a class, maybe two. Instead, she walks over to her desk and pulls out her entire backpack, and then from that, every binder that she has.

"All of it…" She smiles sweetly. I laugh and sigh at the same time.

 _Of course. This is going to be a long rest of the say, but hey. I get to spend it with Ruby, so it's not that bad._


	13. Chapter 13

Author's Note: So… This is a few weeks lat. I'm sorry about that! I uh… I got a girlfriend recently, and she's been a big part of my life already. It's winter break now, and I miss her. But I'll see her soon! In the meantime, here's the chapter that both my beta reader and my AMAZING girlfriend inspired me to write. Again, I'm sorry for such a late chapter, but it's at the longer end of my chapter length spectrum, and by that, I mean it's the longest chapter of this story so far, so it might make up for it? Maybe? Oh well, either way, enjoy!

You do not talk to me like that, young lady. 

Answer me, Weiss.

WEISS

Three missed calls from: FATHER.

Don't forget who keeps you fed, Weiss…

I sigh to myself as I read the messages. After Ruby and I almost got caught by Yang and we went to work on the homework that Ruby needed help with, I ignored my Scroll, which was set on Do Not Disturb, so it was easier to do so. But afterwards, Ruby went to the bathroom, and I had a chance to check my Scroll. After turning off Do Not Disturb, my Scroll vibrated for each message that I had ignored. And I've been here reading the messages over and over again since she left.

I keep myself fed, Father…

I hold my Scroll tightly, feeling anger seep through my mind. I can feel my face morph into a scowl This wasn't something that I thought I would ever have to deal with again. I guess that's something that I didn't think about when I decided to come back.

"Hey, Weiss. What's going on?" I turn around quickly, surprised by the sudden noise. Ruby is standing outside of the bathroom door. She looks at me worriedly, and as she does, I can feel my face soften out of a scowl and more into a neutral expression.

"I'm sorry, Ruby. It's just that my Father is making me angry. But…" I trail off, sigh, and turn away from Ruby. "But it's okay, don't worry about it." I hear footsteps, and then arms wrap around me. I'm a bit surprised, and I start to feel a little flustered as I feel Ruby's heat surround me.

"Hey, Weiss? You don't need to be going through this alone, okay?" I turn around to see Ruby smiling at me. I can't help but smile in return.

"Thank you, Ruby…" I say. I love how she's already being so supportive. Ruby lets go of the hug, and as she walks by me, she gives me a light kiss on the cheek. My entire body seems to stiffen as I blush heavily and look at her. My thoughts become beyond jumbled as my mind races to process what happens. She turns around briefly to look at me, a slight crimson running across her cheeks.

"You're welcome, Weiss." She giggles before walking over to her desk and grabbing her backpack.

"Wh-where are you going?" I ask, my voice shaking from the surprise kiss to the cheek. I can still feel heat on my face, and even more so where she kissed me. Why does my body react this way? I mean, I know how I feel about her… but WHY? Why is it so strong of a feeling? How can she make me almost stop functioning with a simple kiss to the cheek?

"I'm going to head to the library to study. Because I uh…" She trails off and looks at the ground for a second before her eyes shoot up to make direct eye contact with me, a look of sadness in her eyes. "I don't think I can really study here. Or… concentrate for that matter. It was hard enough working on that last assignment, and it's just been getting harder to focus." She eyes me up and down once before turning to the door and shaking her head. "Yeah, definitely won't be able to concentrate." She puts her hand on the doorknob and starts to twist it. Wait, is she going without me? But studying is my thing! I want to at least go with her...

"Wait!"I blurt out, reaching my arm out to Ruby, who stops turning the doorknob and turns to look at me. Smooth moves, Weiss. You got her attention, now what? Think of something! Fast! "Can… can I go with you?" My question comes out as shy and uncertain.

Ruby's face falls as she looks back up to me. "I don't think that's a good idea, Weiss. It's hard to concentrate around you," she starts. My arm immediately falls to my side, and my head drops. Ruby looks worried and starts talking almost immediately, obviously panicking. "It's not because I don't want to be around you! I swear! It's just because… I've… kiiiinda been putting this assignment off until last minute, and I need to finish it before tomorrow, and I know that if I'm anywhere near you, I won't be able to get it done." Ruby explains. She ends up rambling in the process.

"Ruby, it's okay. I understand. Go study. And next time, do your assignment early, and we won't have to do that again, okay?" I give her a knowing smile. She thanks me and gives me a quick hug before leaving the room to me and my thoughts. Even when I'm sad, her cuteness can still make me feel better. And why am I sad? Is it because Ruby doesn't want to be around me? No, she does want to be around me. Is it because she procrastinated and made it so she would have to leave? I'm not really sure. All I know is that I miss Ruby already.

I wander around the dorm room aimlessly for a few minutes before plopping down onto my bed and sprawling out on it. I let go of my Scroll, and it slides out from my hand onto the bed.

Why do I feel this way? It's been less than a day of us officially dating, and I'm acting like some kind of lovesick puppy. No… I know why… "It's because you've waited years for this, Weiss. It's been fourteen years of you feeling how you do about her, and then she was taken from you. Now you have the opportunity to change that, and you don't want to let her go… Even for such a short time like this…" My words echo out into the dorm room, meant for nobody in particular. The words and their meanings bounce around the room, and as the sounds are lost to the room's poor acoustics, the meaning behind them is not lost to me. "I might as well get up now…" I say, but make no actual moves to get up. I stay laying on the bed for another few minutes before I finally get up, sighing as I do. I want to go out and do something, but I'm not even sure what to do. As if on cue, my stomach growls.

"Well, I guess I know what I'm doing now," I say as I get my Scroll from the bed where I had left it. I walk over towards the desk and grab my bolero from the chair that's next to it. "But where do I want to go to eat?" I stand in the middle of the room for about a minute racking my brain, trying to think of anywhere I can go. But everywhere I would like to go would just be awkward if I went by myself. I get my Scroll out to look through restaurants in the area. I need to get out and do something. It's still strange, but not having Ruby here makes me restless. About three restaurants down on the list, my Scroll buzzes, and a text flashes on the screen briefly before disappearing again.

Yang: Weiss, we need to talk about something. I'll be heading to Thru The Vale Diner soon. Meet me there in about half an hour. Don't be late.

Well this is perfect… for my last problem. But now there's another problem! What does she want to talk about? Could it be that she wants to talk about earlier? I really hope not…

I put my Scroll in my Bolero's pocket and start heading out towards the airship docks. The evening sky greeting me as I step out of the school's interior. I didn't realize it was this late… What time is it? I pull my Scroll out of its pocket and check the time: 7:53. Wow, okay. I need to hurry. I quicken my pace to get to the airship docks faster, nervous of whatever Yang has to talk to me about.

A short Airship ride takes me straight into downtown Vale, a few blocks from where Yang told me to meet her. On my way there, the bustling city streets overtake me as the brilliant flashing lights of the street signs and the low murmur of the people in the background of today fill my head. After about a five minute walk, I eventually make it to Thru The Vale Diner, a quaint little establishment that I hadn't thought of checking out. Thankfully, Yang did. Speaking of Yang, as I walk through the door, I see the blonde brawler sitting in the corner of the building, looking through a menu. I approach her, waving to her to get her attention. She quickly puts the menu down and gestures to the seat across from her. I can hear my heartbeat in my ears as my heart rate quickens.

"Hello, Yang. It's a very nice evening, don't you think?" I ask, overcompensating for my nerves with formalities. I can't really be sure what she wants to talk to me about, so maybe the super cordial approach was… definitely not an accident. Could she be talking to me about the article that went out? Or maybe is it that Blake told her what she heard? Either option is not great...

"Yeah, it is. Anyway, look for what you want. We can start to talk after we order," She dismisses my attempt at conversation and goes back to her menu, leaving me sitting there with my thoughts and a menu I've never seen before.

What do I order? I've never eaten here, even back in my own time.

I look through the menu, finding a bunch of different types very appetizing-looking burgers from the standard burger to one with pineapple on it, to a breakfast themed one, and more. I decide to go for the standard burger, and I put the menu down to patiently wait for the waiter or waitress. I then almost immediately pick up the menu again. It's kinda late… And Ruby hasn't eaten. I should get something for her two. After looking through it again, I decide on getting Ruby the same thing that I got myself. A minute passes before Yang shuts her menu with a light smacking sound. Almost immediately, a waiter comes up to our table.

"Hello ladies, what may I get for you tonight?" He asks in a very obviously fake posh accent. I try my hardest to stifle a giggle and proceed to ordering. Why is he talking like that in a DINER of all places? I realize a more… upstanding restaurant, but not a diner.

"Hi, I'd like to have two orders of the burger with the side of fries, please, one of them in a to go box." I say as I smile. He nods and takes me menu from me and looks at Yang. She looks somewhat surprised by my order.

"Miss, your order?" The waiter asks her, snapping her out of whatever trance she was in. She shakes her head and hands the waiter her menu.

"I'll take the footlong dog topped with chilli and a milkshake." Another nod from the waiter, as he turns around and walks to the counter to put our orders in. Immediately after he leaves, Yang looks me straight in the eyes. "What the hell was that about?"

That catches me off guard. "What? I don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh, you do. That order. I figured you were always one for the salads, and no meats kinda thing. And now you're ordering a burger? And two of them? I guess I'm just surprised by this. Way to surprise me." She compliments, albeit somewhat half-heartedly. I look at her, unsure of what to say. She is right. When I was at this point in my last life, I was very against that. But it's different now.

A few years after we had originally graduated from Beacon, Ruby had taken us as a team to a place with little to no… meat resistant… options on the menu. Eventually, after several tens of minutes of goading, she managed to convince me to have a burger instead of the usual salad with some small pieces of chicken. And it was better than I had thought it would be. I still had salad a lot, but more and more, over the course of the years after that, I started to eat burgers and steaks and the like more. I guess I just didn't expect anyone to notice something that small right now.

"I uh...I was just trying it out. I've been told it could be good, and so I'm going to. And I got this for Ruby because it's late and she hasn't eaten yet either,"

"And who told you that, huh? Ruby? I bet she does have some sway on you…" Yang trails off, a smile on her face to show that she's teasing me just a bit.

"A-actually, no. It may have been told to me by someone else that it would be good, but it was a decision on my own part, actually. I figured I should try something else for once," I explain, not exactly lying, but not exactly telling the truth either. I'm glad that Yang doesn't seem to be in one of her insightful moods right now.

"Huh… Interesting. Anyway, I wanted to talk to you about Ruby. More specifically, Ruby and you," She pauses and eyes me, probably waiting for me to respond. Gathering courage to deal with whatever this is despite the nerves wracking my body, I respond to her.

"O-oh, okay, What exactly did you have in mind to talk about? If it's the whole, keep Ruby safe and don't break her heart or I'll break you kind of thing, then didn't we already t-"

"Weiss, Blake told me what she heard earlier today," Yang interrupts. So that WAS what she wanted to talk about… A blush starts to adorn my face as I find it harder to answer her. I hear my heart beating in my ears. I open my mouth to speak, but no sounds come out. A few tries later, I finally get something.

"Oh… That, huh?" I start to avoid meeting Yang's eyes as my mind races. I can feel my face heat up What do I do? What do I tell her? She probably knows that I was making out with her sister on the bed. That's awkward. I don't know what to do.

"Yes, that. Look, Weiss. It's clear that she likes you a lot. And it's clear that you're absolutely head over heels for her. Just… Don't do that kind of stuff where I can walk in on it, okay?" Yang asks, her tone becoming less hostile, and more of a 'level with me' kind of one.

"Wait, what?" I ask, confused. She's not going to go off on me?

"I'd be a hypocrite if I told you or Ruby not to do those sorts of things. I'd just rather not walk into you and Ruby doing that. She's my sister. It's weird. Anyway, that's all I really wanted to say to you. So just… contain yourself while I'm around, and I won't have too many problems, okay?" She smiles at me. Not a cheeky smile, but an actual smile.

I'm glad that went well. A LOT better than I expected.

"You got it, Yang! I can see how that can be awkward. You have my word." I smile back at her. A comfortable silence falls over the table for about ten seconds before our food is placed on the table in front of us. I look around the room, unsure of what to say. This is… very awkward. I'm not sure what else to say after that conversation.

"Enjoy," the waiter says, bowing. He walks away quickly afterwards. I grab ahold of the burger that I ordered and take a bite. It's definitely not the best burger I've ever had, but it's still pretty good. I look up to see Yang stuffing her face with her footlong hot dog.

The rest of the meal passes uneventfully as both of us are too busy eating to hold any decent form of conversation. We both pay our bill and head back to the Dorm, taking the airship once again, and taking Ruby's food with me.


	14. Update! I'm back!

Hey everyone! Long time no see. I'm sure there's been a lot of questions, but this update is here to answer some questions that you might have.

Question 1: Am I dead?

Answer 1: No, I'm not dead. I took some time off for a number of reasons, but I'm not dead.

Question 2: What are the reasons that you took time off?

Answer 2: College picked up the end of the semester, and I had to focus a bit on exams. I also had to spend a lot more time practicing for drumline tryouts, (and I'm still doing that because I wanna get better). Finally, the main reason that I really took some time off: I was in a relationship, and I was happy for a while. But she didn't like the fact that I was writing this, so I stopped. Honestly because of how happy I was, I figured that I was gonna stay with her for a while, but things changed in the fall semester of this past year. Things... weren't going well, and I ended up breaking up with her in October. I took the rest of that semester to deal with the fallout of removing someone from my interactions and common friend group. Recently, I caught up to reading Domestic Girlfriend (such a spicy manga), and I had the urge to write again. So, here I am.

Question 3: So you're gonna start uploading immediately?

Answer 3: Hold up there just a little bit. I'm currently working on chapter 14 right now, but I want to finish at least up til chapter 19, if not further before I start uploading, that way I give myself that nice buffer window.

Question 4: Will the uploading schedule stay the same?

Answer 4: I'm not sure about that yet. I might stay at weekly, or I might go to every other week. That's still being decided.

Question 5: Where's the story going from here?

Answer 5: You think even if I knew, I'd tell you here? That'd just be boring. It's much more fun for y'all to read what happens when it happens!

Anyway, that's all I can think of in terms of questions that need to be answered now. I look forward to writing for y'all again, and I hope you guys are able to look forward to this story once again. I'm sorry for all of the time that's gone by. Looking back, I should've tried my best to keep up and not just stop. Have a great rest of your day, and I'll be posting again relatively soon!


	15. Chapter 14

**Author's Note: Here it is! What you've been waiting for! I'm a little rusty with this, considering I started this chapter over a year ago, but then came back midway through, so I'm sorry if things are a bit different. Also don't have my editor anymore (understandably because of the time that's passed), so I apologize for any errors that I miss myself.**

 **Also, a bit of a change here. So I finished writing two more chapters worth of this story before I had a big brain epiphany hit me. Inspiration struck! Just… not for this story. I may have… Rushed out an idea for a new story and (at the time of writing this AN) 5 chapters for it in 4 days. This new story has been SO easy on my mind to write, which is new, because usually after chapters are written, I have to take a step back. Lol, not with this new one. I do plan on publishing that one here soon. What I'm thinking is this story will go to monthly updates, and my new story will be updated every other week. This'll give me enough time to catch up on both with the time that I need. And as for the new story itself, it's not going to be a RWBY story. It's actually a Fire Emblem: Three Houses story. I've just been playing it a lot and had some ideas. Anyway, the first chapter of that should come out probably an hour after I post this chapter, so look out for that!**

 **Tl;dr Getting back into it. Don't have a beta reader/editor. New story has been super easy to write, so that's coming out too. That story, which is Fire Emblem, not RWBY will be updated every other week, and this story monthly. First chapter of that will come out about an hour after this chapter.**

 **Enjoy!**

Yang and I get back to the dorm, Ruby's take-out in hand.

Yang bursts through the door to an empty room, "We're back! And nobody's here. Great, ruined the surprise. I wonder where they are?" Yang walks around the dorm room, searching, presumably, for anyone that might be hiding. She quickly opens the closet, saying "Aha! I found you!" The closet is empty.

"Yang, I don't think they're is-" I'm quickly interrupted by Yang.

"Just let me have this." Yang sighs and moves onto the next area: checking the beds. Unfortunately for Yang, her search didn't amount to much, as both beds were made, and the covers didn't hide enough to make her need to check underneath them.

"Ruby's in the library, Yang. She's not here," I say, putting my stuff down on my desk. I walk over to Ruby's desk and gently set down her take-out. _I should leave a note._

" _I got you dinner, Ruby._

 _\- Weiss"_

I write the note and place it on top of the to go box that the burger is in.

"The library?" Yang's tone is one of surprise. "What's she doing there? Without you?"

"Well, studying, I'd imagine," I retort. "What else would she be doing?" I start taking out a small post-it note and put it on Ruby's desk as I find a pen.

Yang thinks for a second before responding, "Well, she could be reading some picture books. You know how much she likes them." _Oh Yang, you have no idea how much I know._ "Anyway, that's besides the point. Ruby never goes to the library on her own!" Yang approaches me right as I found a pen and grabs my shoulders. Startled, I drop the pen, but now that I'm in Yang's grip, I can't bend down to pick it up.

"Y-Yang?" I stammer. "W-what's going on?"

"Weiss, I don't know what you did to my sister, but… thank you!" Yang's face lights up with a bright smile. She hugs me quickly before letting go of me and stepping back slightly.

"What?" _I'm confused. Her entire demeanor just completely changed._

"Thank you! Ruby hardly ever goes to the library, especially not to study. What did you say to her to make her want to go there? And without you?"

"I… I didn't say anything. She said she had a school project that she was procrastinating on. She went to the library to work on it and focus. She did it on her own." I smile at what progress Ruby's already made with her studies. _I was able to get her to this point before, but it took much longer. I guess being with her just gives some extra incentive to her._

"Good for her! I'm glad she's getting her homework taken care of. But that still hasn't answered the other question that's been floating around. Why aren't you with her, huh?" Yang leans in closer to me, one eyebrow raised questioningly.

"Well, I wanted to go there with her, but she told me not to come with her. She said that she'd be… uh… distracted…" I nervously avoid making eye contact with Yang, my face flushing in the process.

Yang chuckles softly before turning around and walking over to the closet. She gets a fresh change of clothes as she speaks. "With what Blake said earlier about what she heard you two doing, it makes sense. I'm still not sure how she heard that through the door, but it's whatever. She's just really perceptive. As for what you were doing, Ruby really likes you, y'know. Just don't hurt her, and you and I will be fine. I suppose I can sympathize with her, especially with how things have been this semester so far."

 _Does that mean… Wait, she can't have already started trying to hang out with Blake more, has she?_ A slight smirk forms on the corner of my mouth as I think, but I notice and stop myself. _I could help set her and Blake up. It's the least that I could do for her. If I'm gonna do this, I have to make sure that I'm innocent about it._

"You mean with Blake?" As soon as Blake's name is spoken, Yang drops the clothes that she had in her hands. She scrambles to grab the articles of clothing that had just recently vacated her arms and turns towards the bathroom door. It's honestly impressive how fast she is. Too fast to see if she's blushing. She starts laughing, still not looking at me. The laughter is tense, almost forced. _I hit the nerve._ I smile inwardly at myself. Blake has always been Yang's weakness.

"What makes you think that has to do with Blake?"

"Well, you two just seem really close. Any time that I'm with Ruby, you're with Blake. It just seemed kind of natural for you two to be close. Oh, well. If that's not the case, then forget I said anything." I say, nonchalantly, brushing off my question almost entirely. Yang sighs and turns around, the remnants of a slight blush still lingering on her pale face. _She took the bait! Not bad for my first time doing this in a while. I bet the other Yang would be proud of me using some of her tricks against her. She really taught me how to steer conversations. It's taken some concentration on it, though. I don't think I could do this at the drop of a hat._

"Is there something you're not telling me, Weiss?"

"Oh, nothing much. Just a few suggestions if you wanted to go after her." I turn around and move to my desk. I organize some papers for a few seconds and then turn my head to look at Yang. "But you're not interested in her, right? So just forget I said anything about it." I offer a coy smile and then turn back around, returning my focus to the somewhat haphazard paper layout that sits atop my desk. After a few seconds, there's a soft thud, something rubbing against something else, and then another soft thud. I turn around to see what's going on, and Yang has pulled up her chair. She has a notepad in one hand, and a pen in the other. Her clothes were unceremoniously thrown on the floor next to the bathroom door.

"What are your suggestions?" Yang's face is serious, determined almost. A soft chuckle passes my lips and I pull my own chair out to sit across from her.

"So Yang Xiao Long, teen heartthrob, and breaker of many a teen boy's heart, has a crush on Blake, but was embarrassed to say it?" I pointedly tease.

"Listen, I didn't ask to be mocked. She's just… different. She's really mysterious. She's just really… alluring. It's almost like she's hiding something, but not quite, y'know?"

"Alright, alright, I won't tease you. Much. Anyway, some things to keep in mind when interacting with Blake. She really likes fish. And milk." Yang starts writing on her notepad, but stops shortly.

"Fish? She doesn't seem like the person whose favorite food is fish. Are you sure?"

I laugh louder than I had meant to. "I'm positive." Yang looks at me with slightly widened eyes, inhales, and shakes her head slightly before going back to writing.

"If you say so." She finishes writing and looks back up at me, expectantly.

"I'm sure you've noticed the bow she always wears. Try asking her about it sometime."

Yang looks at me quizzically. "Why's that? Is there a reason?"

I shrug. "Just a hunch. Maybe give it a try sometime. Anyway, that's what I have for you. Have fun!" I smile and turn back around to finish organizing the papers on my desk.

"What? That's it?" Yang asks.

"I mean, yeah. I don't know THAT much about her, Yang." _Lie._ "I can't just tell you all of her secrets if I don't know them." _Another lie._ Some sweat starts forming on my brow, and I catch myself unconsciously holding my breath.

"Fair enough. Alright, thanks anyway. I'm gonna go take a shower. I'll be out in like, 45 minutes." Another slight thump sounds out, followed by the closing of the bathroom door. I let out my breath.

 _I may have learned how to steer conversations, but lying still freaks me out. This is still a lot harder than I thought it would be._

My musings are quickly interrupted by the door flinging itself open. "Weiss! I'm back!" Ruby flies into the room. I jump slightly in surprise as her arms wrap around me from behind. Shortly after the surprise fades, a feeling of warmth fills my face. I try my best to turn around while still in Ruby's grasp, ultimately failing. As small as she is, she's pretty strong. She needs to be in order to use Crescent Rose the way she does.

Sighing in defeat, I say, "Ruby! Let me turn around!"

Ruby immediately releases me. "Oh, sorry Weiss." I turn around and hug her tightly. We stay close for a minute or so before I finally let go.

"Welcome back, Ruby! How was doing homework?" I smile as I look into her silver eyes. Her beautiful silver eyes. She smiles brightly in return. She turns and places her bag on her desk chair before turning back to look at me.

"Well, I got it done! I did it faster than I thought I was going to. Being in a distraction free environment really helped me stay on target with the assignment." Ruby explains excitedly, slightly bouncing in place as she says it. I can't help but smile at the excitement.

"I'm glad that you enjoyed yourself, even if it was homework. I'm really proud of you, and I know that you're going to make a great leader for our team."

Ruby looks at me with a shocked expression on her face: eyes wide and eyebrows raised. There is a slight parting of her lips. Quickly after internalizing what was said, her face changes again. A smile adorns her face, and I can see some tears start to well up in the corners of her eyes.

"Weiss!" She yells, wrapping me up in yet another hug. "You have no idea how much that means to me. Thank you."

I smile and wrap my arms around her, pulling her head into the crook of my neck and her as a whole closer to me. "Of course, Ruby. I mean every word of it." We hold each other for another minute or so, just enjoying each other's presence. Inhaling, my nostrils are filled with the scent of Ruby's hair. Even though it's been hours since she took a shower, I can still smell the scent of her strawberry shampoo, however faint it might be.

Ruby's head shifts, and before I can understand what's happening, there's a pair of lips that have claimed a spot on my neck. A chill runs down my spine, and a rush of heat flows from my head down to between my legs. I step back from Ruby quickly, a heavy blush painting my face. Ruby's face falls slightly as I do. I step back to Ruby, the side of my right hand grazing her face. She looks up at me, and I smile at her.

"Don't worry, Ruby. You didn't do anything wrong. That's just a precaution on my end. It's hard to control myself enough around you as it is. I don't wanna lose control, especially with your sister in the bathroom taking a shower." I pull her head close to mine and kiss her forehead.

"Well, maybe I… Maybe I want you to…" Ruby's face heats up, and mine follows suit quickly. There's a small smile that I can see her trying to hide.

"Wh-what… I… I mean, I… L-like… Wh-what?" I stutter, too flustered to form any real sentences. I can hear the dullness my heart's beat in my ears, and the feeling of it beating shakes through my body.

"Ah… Sorry, Weiss. I didn't mean to embarrass you." Ruby smiles sheepishly and looks away.

"No no, don't worry about it. I just wasn't expecting it. Ummm…" I trail off and look around the room to something to change the subject to. As I glance from object to object, my eyes lay themselves upon Ruby's take-out. "Oh! I got you some food when I went out earlier." I disengage from Ruby and move over to her desk. I grab the take-out box and hand it to her.

"Wait, you got me this? When did you go out?" She gingerly takes the box from my hands and opens it. "You got me a burger? That's so sweet!" The sound of shower water finally dies down.

"I went out earlier with Yang. She wanted to meet and talk to me about something. And so I ordered this because I didn't know if you'd have eaten before coming back to the room."

"Th-thank you…" She leans forward and places a small peck of a kiss on my cheek. "That means a lot." I smile.

"Of course. It's the least that I could do for you."

"Well, I'm gonna eat this now! I haven't had anything for dinner. I'm gonna enjoy this!" Ruby sits down at her desk and opens her box. The door to the bathroom opens and Yang comes back into the room, clothed in her typical pyjamas, right as Ruby takes her first bite.

"Well, I'm glad to see you back, and homework done, yeah?" Yang asks, side-eyeing Ruby.

"Mhm!" Ruby's mouth is full with the burger, but she's still able to manage a smile.

Yang laughs and moves over to the bunk, climbing up into her bed. "Well, I'm glad. I dunno when Blake is gonna get back, but I'm kinda beat, so I'll see you guys in the morning. Goodnight!"

"Goodnight, Yang," I say.

"Nrt, Yng!" Ruby tries to yell, but still has some burger in her mouth.

I can't help but laugh. "You're really cute, Ruby. You know that?"

Ruby blushes, swallows what's left of the bite she had taken and whispers under her breath. "Thank you…"

"You're welcome, Ruby." I pull up my seat next to her and rest my head on her shoulder as she keeps eating until we both head to bed.


	16. Chapter 15

**Author's Note: So here we are again. Sorry, it's a short chapter, but I meant to add more to it further after writing it, as I was burnt out then. Then some life stuff happened. This week, I've had drumline auditions, an essay, and the game I've been working on crashed before I could save it, so hours of work was gone. Regardless, there's still a chapter! For those of you wondering if this is gonna follow the course of the actual show (with the fall of Beacon, etc. etc.) I have no idea. I haven't watched any of volume 6 or 7, so I really don't know where the show went after volume 5. Eh, I'm sure I'll think of something. We're still in basically the first volume worth of the timeline, so I have time. Also, Edge of Dawn from Fire Emblem Three Houses is a banger. I've been listening to it on repeat for probably 5 or so hours while I've been writing this chapter. In context with the game, it makes me kinda sad. But then if you substitute the game characters for Weiss as the one singing to Ruby in reference to this story, then that's also really fitting, which is strange, but it's also really cool. Anyway, enjoy this chapter!**

Days pass by in the blink of an eye. Most of the days consist of helping Ruby with homework and studying, even though we tend to get a bit distracted. Yang has been spending time with Blake a lot more frequently since I told her about Blake's favorite food and to try to ask her about her bow. I can't but smile at the thought of me helping Yang get with Blake. Thinking about it almost made me miss one of the turns to the dorm. I manage to pull myself out of the thoughts in time to catch the mistake. I'm right around the corner to the dorm itself when my Scroll buzzes. I pull it out and keep walking towards the dorm. By the time that I am able to read the message fully, I'm already at the door, hand around the knob, door half open.

 **From Yang: You may not want to come back to the dorm just yet. I did what you suggested and asked Blake about the bow thing. She got really quiet, so I just kinda reached for it. I ended up grabbing it, but I felt something underneath it. I took the bow off, and apparently Blake's a cat faunus with little ears, but she didn't want anyone to know. She got mad and asked who told me about this. I said that you suggested it, probably because you were curious too, but now she's mad at you. I locked myself in the bathroom to keep her from hitting me.**

I look up from my Scroll to see Blake standing in the middle of the room, staring at me. No bow. Only cat ears.

"H-hey, Blake. How are you?" I feign a smile. Blake does not seem to be having any of it. She walks up to me and grabs my arm. She pulls me further into the room, shuts the door behind me, and then pushes me against it. She leans up close to my face, her brow furrowed. _I didn't know it was going to make her this angry._

"Who told you about this?" She points up to her cat ears with her free hand.

"Nobody told me about it!" I say back to her.

Blake grabs the front of my shirt and pushes me harder into the door. "Don't lie to me! Who told you?"

"I just kinda thought it might be the case!" I quickly lie. Once again, sweat starts forming on my brow.

Blake's grip loosens on my shirt and her face softens slightly. "What?"

"I just thought that you hearing Ruby and I, even though we were pretty quiet, was a little weird. I looked into it, and I found that some faunus can hear some things better than humans. I didn't think you were, but I was curious. Yang said she wanted to get closer to you, so I just kinda suggested it because I was curious. Plus, your bow has never come off." I explain, even though I'm lying. The sweat that has formed on my brow starts to fall.

"I… I see…" Blake lets go of my shirt and turns around. "I'm… I'm sorry for reacting the way I did. But I suppose my secret is out. I am a faunus. I suppose that I have broken your trust. I'm sorry. Do what you will with me." Blake looks down at her feet, her face clearly fallen and sullen. I step forward slowly and put my arms around Blake. She twitches and pulls back, but to no avail. My hug remains strong. "Wh-what are you doing?" Blake asks, her voice shaky.

"You told me to do what I will with you," I say, removing my arms and stepping back. Blake's eyes are open wide in shock. "So I did." I smile brightly at Blake. "Look, Blake. It is true that you did hide stuff from us. Ideally, at this point, you would have come to trust us enough to be able to tell us; however, I know that's not always the case. People don't look at Faunus with such a kind eye, and that can cause some people to really close themselves off. If things happened differently for me, I could be full of anger and hatred myself. But honestly? I don't care. You are you. I just hope that you can trust us enough from now on to tell us the next time something this big comes up, okay?" A pang of guilt pierces through my mind. _How can I tell her this stuff when I myself am basically hiding the reason for my entire existence from them._

Blake slowly sinks to her knees, face blank and eyes still wide. "You don't… you don't hate me?"

I lean down to be eye level with Blake. Her amber eyes meet mine as soon as my face lowers down to hers. "Of course I don't hate you. You had things to hide. It was out of fear. That's understandable. I'm sure that Ruby and Yang have their own things that they hide. It's okay. Now, get up. Everything is fine. Up up up." I say, grabbing one of Blake's arms and pulling her upwards. She stands, somewhat shakily, to her feet and walks over to her bunk. She picks up the discarded bow that was on the ground next to the bed and sits down. I sit down next to her and asks, "Are you going to tell Ruby?"

Blake sighs, grasping her bow in her hands. "I suppose I have to, especially after everything you've said to me."

"Well, then I'll leave that to your judgement. We're not going to tell her, right, Yang? I know you're listening in there," I say towards the bathroom, raising my voice so that it's definitely loud enough for Yang to hear. A small click sounds from the bathroom door, and Yang steps out from behind the door.

"Of course not. That's Blake's reveal to do. Ahahaha." Yang walks into the room from the bathroom, clearly still a bit wary of Blake as evidenced by the laugh that she gave.

"In that case, you should probably put your bow back on so that Ruby doesn't have the surprise spoiled for her." I say to her. Blake nods and fastens her bow on her ears. This process that Blake undergoes absolutely mesmerizes Yang, her gaze almost palpable. "We'll leave the rest to you. Take your time."

"I'll probably just get it taken care of soon. I don't want to drag this out." Blake says, pulling out her Scroll, which she starts typing on. "I'm sending Ruby a text. I asked her to get back to the dorm whenever she could. And Weiss?" She looks up from her Scroll up to make eye contact with me.

"Yes, Blake?"

"What about you?"

"What about me what?"

"You said that I had things to hide and that you were sure that Yang and Ruby have things that they probably hide. What about you? Do you have things you're hiding?"

Instead of responding, I can't help but just look away from Blake, avoiding eye contact.

"I see. Well, whatever that may be, I'm sure you have your reasons. Like we all do. I'll be in the bathroom taking a shower for a bit. Hopefully Ruby will be back by that time. Please excuse me. My ears are rather sensitive, and seeing as how my bow was ripped off of them earlier, I need to relax them." Blake sets her scroll down on her bed, gathers her nightclothes, and disappears into the bathroom.

"I suppose we can only sit and wait for Ruby's return. This… was not what I was expecting," I say to myself as I sit down on my own bed, quizzically thinking about the events that had just transpired.


	17. Update Again

Hey, everyone. With college winding down for the semester, final exams and projects are ramping up. Due to this, I won't have a chapter for RPFIT this week as I've been trying to get everything settled in school. That doesn't mean that you'll have to wait another month before you get the next chapter, however. While I won't be posting today/this week, you can expect an update to both this and Crimson Snow next Sunday! If you haven't checked out Crimson Snow yet, I'd really appreciate that! It's not RWBY, but it is a series that I love dearly: Fire Emblem.

Again, I'm sorry for no chapter this week, but school needs to come first. I'll be back and on top of things next week!

Have a great Sunday, y'all!


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